


Should Not Be But Is

by Killer_Kiwi_XD



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: AU, Abbigail as Wills little girl, Abuse, Alana is not a love interest, Angst, Bondage, Cannibalism, Dubious Consent, Hannibal being a BAMF, Jack Bashing, Kinks, M/M, M/preg, Masturbation, Mentions of Rape, Mythology - Freeform, Oral Sex, Poor Broken Will, Rimming, Rp style writing, Sex, Sexual Frustration, Silent Hill refrences, Sneaky Hannibal, Stag Sex, Voyeurism, Will is a teacher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-20 21:45:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 52,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killer_Kiwi_XD/pseuds/Killer_Kiwi_XD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will is an elementary school teacher with a hard life. He suffers after a brutal past relationship and hides a lot of dark secrets. His sister Alana sends him to a therapist to try and help him after he starts losing time. His life isn't easy and soon after he meets one Hannibal Lecter Will is sent through a series of unfortunate circumstances that causes him to run to Jack Crawford for a job. Will's past isn't really in the past and Hannibal is finding it harder and harder to seperate himself from the young man. Their relationship is something that should not be and yet it already is.</p>
<p>This is an RP between myself and Mute_Black_Sheep. To all reading I hope you enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU rp for Hannibal. This story is being played out by myself and my very good friend Mute Black Sheep. There is a slight crossover at the end of the story that will eventually come into play but for now here are the basics.
> 
> Will is an elementary school teach who is losing time after a scaring incident and a bad relationship. His sister Alana sends him to a therapist so that he can get better. He meets Hannibal Lecter but things don't go so smooth. Hannibal is one of the only people who can pull him out of his mind. Will is also a hermaphrodite and can have children but he doesn't tell Hannibal this.
> 
> The story is a pet project of ours and we really love it but the chapters will not be fast coming. We are taking our time with making this good and I hope that you guys love it! Please comment is you want and enjoy our story!

# Just the beginning

 

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: The birds chirped loudly outside his window, the sun just having risen above the horizon, and will carefully opened his eyes to the bright light. His alarm was seconds from going off, will was sure, and so he simply stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, blinking his eyes, and silently sighing. It was another good day for him, no nightmares of waking up in a cold sweat, and he would get to see all his students today. Will smiled to himself and counted to five before hearing his alarm go off with a small trill. He lazily pressed his hand over the off button and sat up, feeling better than the day before when he had one of his nightmares, and then he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood.

One of the dogs he kept happily ran over to him, nuzzling at his ankle, and Will chuckled before petting the pups head and standing to go shower. He grabbed his work clothes, a simple pair of pants and button down shirt, and then jumped into a nice cool shower. He didn't have to dress to fancy while teaching his class, he often left with something on his clothes anyway, but it was worth it to teach the kids. They were always so lively and eager to learn that Will was more than happy with his slightly low paying job.

Will hummed slightly as he washed his hair and shaved in the shower before getting out and finishing shaving his face. He slid into his pants and stepped out of the bathroom to be greeted by his three dogs, he had more at one point but they had been adopted by a few people. Will grinned and motioned for them all to head to their food dishes and the dogs ran off to go wait for their breakfast. Will started his coffee and fed the three dogs before starting his own breakfast. Eggs were simple enough to make of course and since he wasn't the best at cooking, well eh could follow instructions well enough, he would just have to make due.

Will filled his coffee cup, simply adding sugar, and then finished his eggs before looking at his calendar. His good mood was instantly dampened a bit when he saw what day it was. His sister had set up for him to see a psychiatrist and after school he would have to go meet this 'Dr.Lecter' and while he knew he needed it the idea was just not appealing to Will. He didn't want to sit and tell someone about his problems, he already knew how horrified his sister had been at the information, but he would just have to deal. Will sighed and ate his food, drank his coffee, and then put the dogs away before heading off to work.

It was starting to get cold already, will guessed only another week before it started to snow, and he found the prospect exciting. It was always amazing to watch the kids become so excited at the idea of playing in the snow and beside the few stuffy noses it was a great time of year for him and the kids. Will smiled to himself at the prospect and eagerly got out of his car to head into work. He greeted the other teachers with a bright smile and a wave, the others happy to see him looking so lively, and Will came into his class to start writing what they would be learning on the board. Only a few minutes later the kids filed into the class room, more than happy to see him, and then he eagerly started the lesson.

Will loved his class because not a single child caused trouble. It was so easy for him to get them to focus on what he was teach and all of the parents were more than happy to have him teach their children. Sure there were a few issues but nothing that couldn't be handle and weren't normal for kids their age. Will breezed through the lesson and beside a lunch break incident where a young boy put gum in a little girls hair there were no problems. Will finished the class with the students getting to do their homework and ask him questions if they needed before releasing his students with a bright smile. He got quite a few hugs as the kids left and he stood in the door way with a grin and his arms crossed over his chest.

He loved those kids, even with the nightmares that he had, it was amazing to see them so happy just from one of his lesions. Will guessed it did help that when he taught math he used fun objects and told it in a way that kept the kids interested. Will sighed and looked down at his watch before cursing silently to himself and then dodging into his class to grab his coat and leave for his appointment. He had a feeling he would be late, he prayed he might miss the appointment, but low and behold the traffic seemed null and void by the time Will made it onto the road and he actually made it to the office early.

Will took a deep breath, his nerves a bit high strung, and stared up at the building. From what his sister told him this Dr. Lecter was an amazing therapist. He was one of the best money could buy and since Will's sister was paying Will felt to guilty to just leave. The brunette sighed to himself and got out of his car before heading into the office. He stopped at the receptionist. "Hello. I am here to see Dr. Lecter?" The woman nodded carefully and looked over her list.

"Name please?" Will swallowed a little "Will Graham." The girl nodded and then motioned for Will to take a seat. "Dr. Lecter is  just finishing with another patient and should be out soon. Would you like some water?" Will shook his head and sat down, his fingers tapping against his leg, and he waited. He didn't have to wait long before the door was opening and someone he was not expecting was stepping out. Will had expected a much… fatter man. Most therapists that he had seen were large and balding or older women who seemed to be bored with everything that was said. This man was probably on the older side, late thirties Will guessed, and his blond hair was a pleasant contrast to his skin tone. He had an intelligent look to him and Will suddenly felt like this man could see all his problems before he even spoke.

Will stood carefully and followed the other man into the room, nervously tapping his fingers against his leg and brushing some hair behind his ear. He took a deep breath as he was told to sit and he sat stiffly in the chair. There was a bit of silence and Will glanced up at Hannibal "So uh… How will this go? Usually I have to fill out some kind of… uh… test or something." Will glanced nervously to his left, rather pleased to see the room filled with books.

 Mute Black Sheep: Waking earlier than the sun had a very small price to pay but it was worth it. Hannibal stood over the stove, slowly sautéing mushrooms that he picked from his own garden outback. Slowly, he added onions, the two mixing giving off a wonderful aroma that quickly filled the kitchen. A small sound of delight came from him before adding the chopped liver he had stored in the fridge. He had gotten it last night from an old colleague, the man was very generous, even gave him two wonderful cuts of liver. Fresh. Eggs were quickly added in another, heated and waiting pan. Letting them cook, Hannibal added the vegetables to one side of the eggs then folded it over to make an omelet. Turning off the stove, he let his breakfast slide onto a waiting plate where he quickly garnished it with chopped chives and Fontana cheese that slowly melted on the hot omelet that became very rich and savory.

Setting the plate aside, Hannibal then poured himself a glass mug of some freshly pressed coffee. It seemed pointless to make such a fine meal for just one person. To Hannibal, a great meal set the rest of the day. If it wasn't to his standards, then he wouldn't touch it. With such a strong palette and expensive taste, only the best was expected. Cereal or a single cup of coffee would never do. Sitting at the long table, Hannibal opened the curtains that covered the French doors. Sitting at the head of the table, he ate in silence as he stared out at the lightening sky. Though there were heavy clouds that had been hanging around for a long while. He heard that it would snow soon. Looking to the large, dark, grandfather clock in the corner, Hannibal finished his meal.

Cleaning up what little mess he made, he left the kitchen for the bathroom. A quick, hot shower and dressing in an expensive suit, he was ready for work. A dark gray suit with thin, black pinstripes. His tie, a deep red and the handkerchief in his breast pocket the same color as his tie. Even his shoes, cleaned and polished. Fixing his watch, Hannibal grabbed his dark brief case and headed out to go to work. He would be getting new patients today. He had already gotten the names of the clients he would be seeing today. Heading to work wasn't too long of a trip. Like others, he lived some ways away from the city. He preferred the nice, quiet scene. "Good morning Dr. Lecter.' His secretary said quickly as she got to her feet the moment she saw him. "Good morning." He gave one nod then continued into his office. The woman smiled after him and slowly sat down with a small sigh.

"I just..... I don't know how much I can take Dr. Lecter! He's..... he's ALWAYS up there. Pulling the strings, won't let me sleep!" A male spoke quickly as he scratched at his arms. Hannibal looked down to his arms, the injection sites clear on his arms. This patient had been referred to Hannibal once his psychiatrist had quit. "Well first of all, what needs to stop is your addiction. There is a place where you can go to get clean and if after you are clean and you still hear this.... man, then come back and see me." Hannibal quickly wrote down on the notepad and ripped out the paper with the address on it. "I will call ahead and let them know that you are coming." The man nodded and took the paper, thanking Hannibal before leaving.

The rest of the day was filled with patients that were just too stressed out and had 'epiphanies' about life and themselves that they wished to discuss with Hannibal. He had saw a woman out who had been dealing with repressed memories. She had been suffering with it for years, violent nightmares and sudden rage. He had taken a break for lunch which had been made the night before. A light salad with sesame seed dressing and shavings of radishes, grilled chicken and different kinds of seeds and nuts. His afternoon patients did not differ from his morning patients. Even the new ones, they all started off right away with a defensive attitude and snapped at every suggestion Hannibal made. He knew he would not be seeing many of these patients again. Not because he refused but because they did not get the answer they wanted.

Another woman came in who had been suffering from multiple personality disorder. He had been taking his time getting to know each personality she had. He had some notebooks set aside for such patients or ones that he found were worth their own notebook. He walked her to his office door. "I will see you again next week Lydia. Remember your practices." He reminded her before he looked over and made eye contact with bright, blue eyes. Bright yes, but so very tired. In an instant, Hannibal looked the man over and made guesses about him. "Will Graham?" He asked before stepping out and motioning him to come into his office. As Will passed him, Hannibal's light brown eyes practically scanned him before closing the door behind them.

"Sit." Hannibal gave a tight smile before he sat down in a chair opposite of another. He pulled out a new notebook from the cabinet stand next to the chair. He wrote on the front page Will's first and last name. He began to quickly list what he had gotten from just looking at him. "No test. How about we start with, how are you today? Start with the formalities then continue on from there." Hannibal glanced up at Will from his notebook. He filled up a page, front and back with things he saw and thought about Will. Reaching over, he clicked the record button on the recorder before Will started. This was always common for psychiatrists to record the sessions in case they had to go back and listen to their conversation. "It is November twenty seven twenty thirteen. The time is four in the afternoon. Tell me Will, how did you sleep?" He could see from just looking at Will's face that he had many restless nights and didn't get much sleep too often.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will was pleasantly surprised when Dr. Lecter said that he wouldn’t be taking any test but silently watched the man as he started writing things down. That was a first actually, Will hadn't every had a therapist that actually cared enough to write information down, and to see it gave him a small amount of hope. When Hannibal told him to tell him how he was Will was a little confused and a bit unsure as what to say. He guessed he was alright, today had been a good day, so he guessed that he could just say that. "I am alright. Today was a good day. The kids at the School were all active and with the snow coming so soon their all excited. It keeps me active and focused." Will shifted in his seat.

He didn't like being analyzed like he was, honestly he felt like a specimen in a lab rather than a person, but at the same time it was nice to see some interest from the person who was supposed to be helping him. Will Shifted as the other man started the recording, his nerves jumping up a notch, and he leaned back in his seat. "I slept well last night… I didn't have any nightmares. This week hasn't been good though… I made the mistake of watching the new earlier this week and beside last night have been plagued with nightmares." Will clasped his hands together in front of him, staring at the bottom of Hannibal's desk instead of at the man himself.

The nest question asked Will wasn't surprised by. He heard it so often these day's from his sister that he was prepared to answer it. He just hoped this wouldn’t wind him up in a psych ward. "The nightmare… It was… Uh it was about that triple homicide. The father who came home and killed his two kids and his wife? I dreamt of that but…" Will trailed off before looking up at Dr. Lecter "I was the one doing the killing. I could feel the anger, the hatred toward that woman and her children, and I knew exactly what I was doing. I walked into 'our' room first and killed her in the bed, slit her throat first then stabbed her twenty seven time. Then while still covered in blood I walk down the hall and smothered the first boy with a pillow and the second boy as well." William shuddered at the memory.

"I woke up after that…. I fell asleep again and dreamt of stabbing that woman over and over. It doesn't sound to horrible but it's the JOY I felt during the dream… even as he blood poured off the bed and started filling up the room. It's always the same with these dreams. I always feel what the killers feel. I feel excitement, joy, anger, disgust, everything and when I wake up I am disgusted with myself." Will took a deep breath "and it doesn’t just happen when I am asleep. If I see it on the news I often find myself drifting and putting myself in the killers position… what he might have done, or said, or thought." Will shuddered again and sat up a little straighter.

"It makes me sick sometimes… and other times I AGREE with it. That's the part that scares me. I could never hurt people, I don't have it in me, but to dream these things and think them? Its just so horrible." Will rubbed at his temple and took a deep breath.

Mute Black Sheep: "You work at a school? What grade do you teach?" Hannibal looked up from his notepad and crossed one leg over the other, his hands finding a comfortable position in his lap with the black notebook. "Do you look forward to the snow, or do you dread it?" Of course every question had its purpose, it had a reason and there was always more behind it then a simple question. Hannibal could tell that this man, Will would be a very different case than the other ones he had. Not just by the way he held himself, but the way he shifted, the look he had in his eyes as he looked up at him and around the room, often avoiding eye contact. No matter how much Hannibal stared at Will, the man always avoided his eyes. Maybe he saw what others didn't?

Hannibal continued to apply the pressure of his stare, letting it weigh on Will. "What kind of nightmares are you having Will?" He asked as he picked up his pencil and began to write things down, listening and continued to write as Will spoke about his nightmare. His writing slowed down as Will spoke then paused. As he paused Hannibal stopped writing and looked up to meet Will's tired, blue eyes. Hannibal's brows furrowed slightly. He stopped writing to watch Will as he went on and told him how in his nightmare, he was the one killing the family. Stabbing the woman, slitting her throat and smothering the two young boys. Slowly, Hannibal nodded and began to quickly write in the notebook. Just as he thought, this one would be interesting. He was happy that he had gotten a note book out just for Will.

"Do you ever lose track of time? If you have one of those moments while awake, does it carry on for long periods of time? Do you find yourself missing memories?" Hannibal stopped writing to look up at him as he spoke. "Will, there really isn't anything wrong with you. Unlike many people, you over empathize with people. Just not anybody though. It's the  extreme cases you put yourself in. Where many of these killers have no empathy, you have too much of it. Certain stories can really reach you, pull you into that world and let you experience it all.

For somebody like you, it is common. It is nothing to fear. You are not crazy, I can assure you that. But I would like to keep seeing your after this appointment. Sometimes.... sometimes you can lose yourself in the minds of others. The line between the two worlds blur and you can easily lose yourself in one, convincing yourself that it is reality. I wish to keep you from going into that world and keep you in this one, reality." Hannibal pulled back his shoulders for a moment before he scribbled some notes down in the booklet again. "How many night a month would you say you have these nightmares? About how long do they last? Do these nightmares continue on for days, weeks, months? It's very important that I know these details."

Hannibal rose from his seat and walked over to his desk, pulling out an empty notebook. Bringing it over to Will, he handed it to him. "When you do have these nightmares, I ask that you record them when you wake. What is was about, the detail of everything and every emotion you felt. I also ask that you keep this with you at all times. So if you have an episode while awake to record the same things but as well as what time you think you might have slipped into it and what time it is when you come to." Hannibal handed it off then returned back to the seat opposite of Will's. "I know it may seem like a hassle, but it will help me understand more of what you go through." Hannibal returned to writing a few things down.

"I truly wish to help you Will. I have never met anybody with a case of too much empathy and whatever you go through, I will be there to help you with it, to bring you back, to do anything to keep you here." Already, he was already dedicated to this case, to Will. He wished to see more of what Will had, to keep him there. It wasn't odd that Hannibal found this very interesting, but to already be so engrossed in it, to be willing to do anything. Maybe Will could even be of some use to him in the future. It would be beneficial to the both of them.[/quote]

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will nodded when he was asked if he looked forward to the snow, answering each question quite easily. "I work in an elementary school." And then the other was asking him if he ever lost time and Will only nodded. He always lost time when he had his waking episodes. They blocked his mind from reality and he couldn’t really tell what was going on in the real world. As Dr. Lecter went on Will felt a bit of a reprieve from the nervousness that he had previously. It seemed that this man truly was going to help him, he seemed to determined, and to know that the other was so focused on him made Will very happy. It had been so long since he had someone believe him and understand him.

When the other brought him a notebook Will reached into his bag that he had brought in with him and pulled out one that he already had. "These nightmares often last a week, maybe two, they vary from time to time but they are always about the same subject. A few times I find that the people in them change to people I know… those are the ones I can't stand. They disorient me and I feel like I actually committed the crime even though I know that I have not." Will shifted a little more, running a hand through his hair. Will sighed in relief when the other said that he truly wanted to help him, to make sure that he knew what was, and wasn’t, reality.

"You will be the first Dr. Lecter." Will gave the man a small smile before realizing that their session was over and Hannibal had another patient to see. "I guess I will make an appointment to come back next week? I will be sure to write down all the information that you told me too." Will held his hand out for the other to shake and then soon after he left. He smiled at the receptionist and made an appointment as instructed by Dr.Lecter before leaving to go back home. Will decided it would be a good idea to call his sister and tell her about how well the appointment had went.

When Will got home he called up the woman and was greeted by her pleasantly happy voice. "Will! How was the appointment?" Will smiled to himself and sighed. "It went really well. I thought that he would… you know just brush me off like the others but he seemed to honestly care. I was completely surprised…also he's nothing like I thought he would be. Most of the therapists I have seen were not as… young." The woman on the other end of the line chuckled to herself.

"I thought you would notice. He's not much older than you Will… Well he is a bit older but he's not like sixty or something. I thought that it would be an attraction point to have someone a little closer to your own age talking to you." Will chuckled and silently nodded to himself "Yeah it did. Anyway I just wanted you to know that the appointment went well. I need to walk the dogs now so I will talk to you later." The woman on the other end of the line bid a farewell and Will hung up the phone before going to walk his dogs. He silently contemplated about having left his filled note book with Hannibal, one he had started at the beginning of the year, but he guessed that the other would make good use of it. It was filled to the brim so hopefully that meant it would be of use.

 Mute Black Sheep: "Yes, the line blurs and your mind substitutes the people you don't know with the people you do to make it more understandable for you." He spoke as he took the notebook Will handed to him. Hannibal flipped through the first few pages then closed it, setting it next to him. "Thank you for that. I will take a look at it." He promised. Giving Will a small smile, Hannibal stood, fixed his coat then led him over to the door. "I thank you for coming to see me. Yes, I would like to see you at least once a week. If you need, you can come in whenever you feel the need to and to call me if you are having an episode." Hannibal reached over to his desk and pulled out a personal business card, handing it to Will.

The session was short because it was simply a consolation. It gave Will the opportunity to decide if he wanted to come back or not. It also gave Hannibal the chance to decide if he would take on Will's case or not. When Will held out his hand, Hannibal grasped the male's hand and shook it. He nodded to Will and stood with the door open for a few moments until Will was gone before closing it and walking back to the seat to grab the two notebooks. His own and Will's. Hannibal sat at his desk, asking his receptionist if she could bring him some coffee. He had his own notebook opened and on his right side, pencil in hand, the other notebook sat open at his left side. Hannibal began to read each entry that Will had wrote.

It seemed to start of slow. A few nightmares here and there. Small flashes during the day. Nothing more, nothing big. Hannibal noticed that as he read on, it got progressively worse and worse. Even a few entries where the writing was not Will's. It was a mess, sloppy and wasn't even written on the lines, the words curving and trailing down the page. Those were the pages where Hannibal guess Will was in his state and writing it all down through the killer's eyes. It still amazed him that somebody could identify and understand criminals so easily. It was a shock that he wasn't on the police force. Hannibal would have to keep them away from Will. He was sure they would eventually catch wind of Will's abilities and come for him to work for them. He wouldn't allow it. If they got a hold of Will then without a doubt, he would be found out and the Organ Grinder would be found out. Though Hannibal found the name to be rather odd, it was so very fitting. Of course he didn't come up with the name.

Tapping the desk, Hannibal closed both notebooks and put them away in his brief case as his secretary came in with his coffee and the next patient. He sat back in the same seat and talked with the woman. Though he knew her well to know what she was going through, he could not take his mind off of Will's case. Once she had gone, Hannibal pulled the notebooks out again, reading through Wills more.

As it got later, Hannibal packed up and left his office after his secretary. He had lived some ways away from the city, again, like many had. It wasn't uncommon. The sky was already dark when he stepped out of his office. The temperature had dropped severely and the sun was already gone, out of sight. Hannibal unlocked his car, setting his briefcase in the back seat before driving off. It was around nine after all when he left his office. Driving out of the city took about a good thirty minutes and he was almost half way home when he came to a sudden stop. Hannibal stared at the figure just out of the reach of his head lights. Dogs barked around the figure and Hannibal slowly removed his seat belt. On edge, he got out of his car, standing at the open door. Squinting into the darkness he could tell that the figure was male.

"Hello? Are you alright?" He called out, slowly making his way over. The figure became very familiar. "Will?" Hannibal relaxed as he walked quickly over to the man. He was standing still, perfectly still. His arms were freezing, he didn't have a coat on. He must have been standing there for a very long time to be so cold. "Will!" Hannibal took the male's shoulders in his hands and carefully shook him. The dogs at their feet barked and moved around, the leashes wrapping around Hannibal's and Will's legs. "Will! Wake up!" He gave him a hard shake this time until he came around. "Will, it is November twenty seventh, twenty thirteen." Hannibal quickly looked at his watch. "It is nine forty five in the evening. Do you know where you are? How you got here?" Hannibal still held Will's shoulders in his hands.

Hannibal let Will's shoulders go and removed his coat. He put it around Will's shoulders. "You are freezing cold. You must have been out here for quite some time." Glancing down at the dogs, he took the leashes then led all four of them to the car. "Get in. You can warm up in there." Hannibal opened the passenger door and helped Will in before opening up the back door to let the dogs jump into the car. Once seated in the driver's seat, Hannibal closed the driver's door and turned up the heater. "Get your hands in front of the vents." He guided Will's hands to the vents where hot air blew out. "What is the last thing you remembered Will? What did you see this time?"

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will started his walk without any trouble. He leashed up the dogs and headed out the door, all of them pulling excitedly, and left his coat at home. He wasn't taking them on a long walk, they weren't very energetic dogs, and he looked down at his watch. It read that it was five and will only expected to be walking the dogs for a short while, an hour at most, and so he started on his walk. He walked through the town, smiling and greeting a few of his students, not bothering to pay much attention to the direction he was going because he knew the town so well. He knew how to get home when he needed to get home.

Will was walking by a café when he heard the news and like the fool he was at times he turned to look. A murder suicide at the college down the road. A young women killed her boyfriend and then herself in a manic fit of depression brought on by drugs and a lack of sleep. Will stared at the image on the screen of the murder scene and then suddenly everything was fading away. He was the one who was drugged, having spent nights and nights awake, and he found the young man laying in bed sleeping like he couldn’t. Anger and jealousy over such a silly thing engulfed him and Will grabbed the gun that they kept in the night stand in case of a break in.

He held the gun up, his only intent to scare the other when he woke up, and he kicked the mattress. It wasn't so funny of a joke though as the drugs spun in his system, making the world waver, and when the other man opened his eyes his face changed to a monster and with a scream Will shot him. The next moment filled him with horror, the gore in his mind far surpassing the rather small mess, and he took a horrifying step back. He couldn’t believe he had killed him, he shouldn’t have, couldn’t have, done that and yet the other man wasn't moving.

Will felt shame, guilt, anger, and depression swallow him and he knew the only way to repent for what he had just done was to pull the trigger again. He raised the gun to his own head, pressing the barrel against the underside of his chin, and with sobbing tears pulled the trigger. It the next moment Will was staring at Hannibal, his dogs whimpering and barking at him, and he had no idea where he was. Will blinked slowly, his brain taking a moment to catch up, and then he realized how cold he was. He shuddered and shivered as Hannibal put his coat over him.

"I… How? Dr. Lecter I have no idea where I am.. last time I looked at my watch it was five thirty." Will shivered and his teeth started chattering at they got in the car, the dogs happily getting into the warmth and laying down like Will had trained them. "I-I think… th-that I w-walked." Will shivered, placing his hand over the vents and slowly felt a tingle start up in his partially frozen fingers. "I… I was walking my dogs past the CAFÉ…. On third and fourth across from the all day, late night, deli." Will shifted his feet and winced "I have a feeling that is quite a ways away from his considering I live inside the city." Will shivered again and pulled his hands away from the vent, staring down at them in his lap, and he took a deep breath.

"I saw a murder on the tv in the café, a murder suicide, usually those don't affect me but this time it got in my head. It was just supposed to be a joke… The gun wasn't supposed to be loaded but the drugs… Oh god I should have checked to make sure-… no SHE should have made sure there were no bullets in the gun. It wasn't me…. It wasn't me."

Mute Black Sheep: "Will, that was four hours ago." Hannibal reached over to pull Will's hands back to the vents to get the blood moving again. "From there? That's about six miles from here." Hannibal looked at Will with furrowed brows. When Will pulled his hands from the vent, Hannibal pulled his own back. "Listen, you are Will Graham. You are not that woman, you are not anybody else BUT Will Graham." Hannibal reached over to pull Will's hands back to the vents to keep them warmed up. "What is the longest you remember being out for?" Hannibal turned up the heat again, glancing back to the dogs in the back. He reached over to touch one, feeling that the dogs too had warmed up. Hannibal turned back around to look at Will again.

"I will be taking you back to my home. After having such an episode I would like to keep an eye on you tonight. I do not believe that you will be nightmare free tonight." Especially with two recent episodes. It would be best, though a little far for a therapist, it would be best for Will. "Do you live alone?" Hannibal asked as he started up the car and continued down the road. Looking to the small screen that displayed the time, date and temperature outside the car, he saw that it was reading into the mid forties. Hannibal glanced back to Will again. How could somebody walk in such weather without even realizing it? How was he still on his feet let alone unharmed? It was surprising that he wasn't hit by a car or had fallen.

"It's going to be snowing soon." He furrowed his brows. "You were out in this cold for four hours." It was still quite a shock to Hannibal. Once they reached his home, he let Will out then grabbed his briefcase and the leashes. He led the four guests into his home. It was warm inside. Well insulated to keep the heat in and the cold out. "Sit, I'll make you some coffee." He unhooked the leashes to let the dogs lay down where they pleased to. Hannibal left Will in the living room while he went into the kitchen to make them both some coffee and perhaps a late dinner. He was sure Will hadn't eaten anything. So he went right a head and began to cook after bringing Will the mug of coffee. Hannibal pulled out some chicken that he had meant to cook for tomorrows dinner. He cooked it in a sauce of mushrooms, rosemary and garlic. He set it over a bed of wild rice with steams broccoli.

Hannibal brought their plates out to the living room, handing him a plate before sitting down in one of the chairs at the table. "I hope you do not mind me having you stay here tonight. I just think it will be in your best interest if you did and for your safety. Will, in times when you are faced with news of killings or death of any kind, you have to remind yourself of who you are. If you feel yourself slipping, you have to have something that can pull you back from entering that alternate reality. We need to find what can bring you back from it all." Hannibal glanced to the dogs. They had been with him the entire time and it didn't keep him from slipping. He took a bite of the meal. It had to be something that would really bring him back and keep him there. But Will also had to recognize when he was slipping and tell the different between that and being tired or how to tell if he was in that other reality.

"Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will winced slightly when Hannibal told him how long he had been out for and then his hands were placed back up to the vents, the tingling sensation building as the blood warmed his numb fingers. When the other asked the longest time that he had been out Will had a hard time answering. It wasn't often that he had these kind of episodes but they had increased lately. "I don't… I think the longest one was an hour but I didn't go anywhere. I think it was because I was walking the dogs." Will took a deep breath, the others words reassuring him.

When Hannibal said that he would be taking will home with him the male felt sort of like a lost puppy and more than a little like he was intruding. Will was silent for a moment, just staring down at his hands, which he had back in his lap, and then he sighed "Yes I live alone. Beside the dogs that it." Will shivered again and looked back at the dog who seemed to be doing alright. They were fine in the cold, they all had longer fur, and most likely were only stressed from the long walk and the fact that Will had been so stressed. Will reached back and carefully pet each one, giving a sort of reassurance that everything was fine now.

Will winced when the other mentioned how long he was out for again and he sat silently in the car. The ride to Hannibals wasn't horribly long and once they reached the other males house Will limped slightly inside, feeling quite a few broken open blisters and a twinge from his ankle he hadn't notice before from the cold. Will nodded when the other offered to get come coffee and sat on couch. He pulled off his shoes to get a good look at the damage and was relieved that it wasn't anything more than a few broken blisters. He guessed it was because he was used to walking the dogs and being on his feet a lot thanks to his students.

The dogs all comfortably sat around Will, letting him reach down and pet them before they laid down for some sleep after their not so fun adventure with their master. Will guessed the only reason he was completely unharmed was because of the dogs, he had trained them very well, and most likely they had steered him out of danger when it came close. Will was also glad he had decided to feed them before going on the walk or else he would feel much more guilty about staying with Hannibal that night. When the man came back with not only coffee but some food Will gave him a grateful look.

"Thank you, really, you're doing a lot for me than most people have ever done." Will sipped at the coffee, feeling relieved, and moved to the table to sit. The dogs simply raised their heads before going back to sleep and Will just sighed at Hannibal's next statement. "I don't… Honestly I don't know if that's possible. I had an episode once while my sister was around and she tried everything she knew to get me out of it. I love my sister and the fact that she couldn’t break me out it… I honestly wonder if it's possible." Will stared sown at his plate. "I also wonder how long it will be until the episodes don't just last minutes, or hours… I don't think I would survive if they went on for a day or two." Will sighed and took another bite of food before looking at the dogs.

"I guess I was lucky I had them with me. Their good dogs, well trained, I trained them to be guide dogs for the blind a while back, I do that for all my dogs, so I am pretty sure they are the only reason I wasn't seriously injured. Also I am sorry if they shed. I just groomed them yesterday but since their all long haired you just can't get it all done until they finish shedding." Will chuckled slightly as he saw tails start wagging, the dogs knowing better than going up to the dinner table, and then he went back to eating. "You did break me out of it though… If I think about it I probably still had some time left in that… whatever you call it."

Mute Black Sheep: "I have already told you that I will help you Will." Hannibal didn't take his own words lightly. He was always serious about what he said and what he meant. "It is possible. The only thing that will take time is finding it. Finding out what can bring you back. That might mean having to go into that state willingly to test out a few things. There is always something, there is always an anchor. Many times, when a person experiences such states, it is a person that can bring them back. They often have to rely on that person to keep them close and to keep a close eye on them. It can be a little much, but if it helps you keep a grip on reality then it will all be worth the trouble." Hannibal said confidently before taking some chicken and rice on the fork to put into his mouth.

"That is why we will have to find what can either bring you back or keep you here before these episodes last any longer. For it to jump from one hour to four, that can be a dangerous sign Will. Either that or because you were outside. You were not held back by walls. Though in many cases, you can leave your home without even meaning to in that state. Many things can happen." Hannibal picked up the glass mug, drinking from it as he glanced down to the dogs. "Yes, it is a good thing you had them. But what about next time? What if you don't have them then? Or if you're at work and it happens? We may have to rush to find an answer Will." He waved off Will's apology. "Do not apologize for nature. A simple cleaning can take care of it. There is no reason to apologize for it." Hannibal set down the mug and looked over to Will. "Yes, I too think you had more time. If anything it is an alternate reality."

Hannibal finished his meal, a little conversation going on between them as they spoke. "If you do not mind, I would actually like to test a few things out that could bring you back. Noises, commands, simple things like that if you consent. If you do not wish to, I understand. You've already spent enough time lost in another reality." Hannibal stood and took their empty plates into the kitchen, washing them up, drying them and putting them away. He never let things sit or dry in a dish rack. If he started it, he would always finish it. "Are you still cold?" He asked once he walked back to the table, returning to his previous seat.

"Do you have any previous cases of sleep walking? Without dreams or nightmares." It wasn't uncommon for somebody with these problems to sleep walk, thrash around in their sleep or even talk. Hannibal began to wonder if Will went through any of those. He wouldn't know unless somebody was there to watch over him as he slept. Hannibal shifted in his seat. He wouldn't unless if he got consent from Will, it would help them both out to know.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will sighed as Hannibal went one, simply nodding his head as the other spoke. "I know Dr. Lecter, I know. I was very lucky this time I had them with me and I have to count my stars that they still remembered their training. I can't rely on them all the time and I didn't mean as such when I said that… I was just stating that it was a close call. I can't imagine what would happen if I had an episode at school… I could end up hurting one of the children and that…that's what I fear the most. I love my job Doctor, I wouldn’t leave it for anything in the world." Will sighed heavily and continued to eat his meal. There was not much conversation between them but enough to seem interesting and the silence that was there was actually quite pleasant.

When Hannibal made his next suggestion Will shifted nervously, his hands pulling at the hem of his shirt and went silent as the other took his plate into the kitchen. When Hannibal came back will was still sipping at his coffee and seemed to be rather on edge still. The next question had Will sighing before looking down at his lap. "I used to sleep walk when I was young yes. I haven't in a long while though… beside once while I was in college." Will shifted and looked towards the dogs again, still debating on putting himself in that alternate state willingly.

"If… If you think it will help me I will gladly go into that alternate state but… we have to try tonight. I will already be having nightmares but sometimes if I slip into that state more than once or twice, even if only for a minute, then the moments can kind of cancel out and the dream will be too confusing to be a nightmare. Of course that doesn’t always work." Will shifted again and shook his head when asked if he was still cold. "Just promise you will try and get me out. Shake me if you have to.. hit me even. I don't think I could handle being stuck like that for hours again."

Mute Black Sheep: "I think it will get us closer to finding out what can bring you back. Everybody has something that brings them back, no matter what. We will then. You will be safe here with me. I assure you." Hannibal stood from his chair, fixing the blazer he wore, his coat still around Will's shoulders. "Come." He motioned for Will to follow him. Hannibal led Will to another room and motioned for him to sit on the couch. While he did, Hannibal gathered a few selected things, setting them on the table that sat in front of the couch.

"Now Will,' Hannibal sat on the table, in front of Will. 'close your eyes. I am sure you remember, a year ago. That shooting at the school. Take yourself back to then. In the killer's place. The gun he held, the smell of gunpowder coating you. The library empty, echoes of cries, screaming and moaning of pain. The blood that lay at your feet and the trails from students who managed to get away." Hannibal was a very detailed memory. He remembered watching the news about it and the footage that they got off the scene.

He was trying to paint a vivid image for Will to set him back in that place. Hannibal waited until Will was gone, testing by touching his shoulder, waiting for a reaction. "Can you hear me Will?" He asked, once he got no response, Hannibal picked up the first object. A wine glass. It seemed odd to have a wine glass as a test object, but Hannibal was looking for sounds that weren't commonly heard. Licking his finger, he slowly dragged it around the rim of the glass, the low tone loud in his ears. Looking up, he found that there had been no reaction. Setting it down, he picked up another object. Tuning fork. Hitting it against the table, it vibrated, which Hannibal raised to Will's ear. Nothing.

An hour later, Hannibal had broke several dishes, dented several old pans with one of the legs from the broken table. He had his blazer, vest and tie removed, tossed on an empty chair. Sleeves rolled up past his elbows and hair disheveled from his rapid movements. Hannibal kicked over a pile of pans that he had stacked up. They clattered loudly to the floor, sliding off the carpet onto the hard wood floor. Finally, Hannibal reached over and touched Will's face. "Will?!" He talked loud enough. He had spent an hour ruining things around his home to bring him back and none of it worked. He was frustrated, tired and shocked that NONE of it had worked! He was sure all the loud noises would bring him back, that even the noises he didn't hear every day would have worked. Hannibal looked over his shoulder at the broken table, the shattered glass on the floor and the mess he had made.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will was nervous and rather scared as the other guided him over the other couch. He sat down with a silent sigh and watched as Hannibal started grabbing things and putting them on the table for them to use. Will blinked carefully as the other sat in front of him, a small bit of skepticism  in his eyes, but then the other was bringing him back. Unfortunately the exact moment that Hannibal picked was one that Will remembered and dreaded the most. He heard the others words but before he could tell him to stop and fell into the alternate world in his mind. Will plunged into the world, ignorant of what was going on around him, and silently wanted to curse Hannibal.

Will suddenly found himself filled with so much pain, so much anger, so much depression and hurt. He found himself ashamed and the gun in his hand a sudden pleasant weight. His feet pressed lightly on the ground as he walked, his clear intention the library where his targets were hiding away, and he grinned sickly. He had his reasons to do what he was doing and the joy his felt was the strongest pulsing point. Will pushed the door open and with a laugh he lifted the gun and shot out. The teacher in the room was the first to be hit, the brainy nerd the second. The silent reader in the back made a nice brain matter and blood splatter on the wall. The slut for class 4b that always teased him was fourth, he shot her in the stomach first, and then next was the Jock who was trying to get those left out while he was distracted.

Will grinned wickedly as he shot the other two, wide eyes facing him in concern and fear, before he rounded on the teacher who was laying on the ground clutching his shoulder. He was just a substitute, only there for the day and usually taught the snot nosed brats instead, but those blue eyes just begged for the bullet he wanted to but in his head. Will raised the gun to fire when the library door flew open with a bang. Gunshots rang out and they hit him in the chest, the shoulder, and the stomach. They burned at his skin and Will fell to the ground, watching as his own body stood on shaky legs and stared at him in shock like he hadn't been there the whole time.

Suddenly will felt a warmth on his cheek, the world around the alternated reality starting to fade, and he heard his name being shouted. Will felt that warmth for into a hand and then with a sudden gasp he came back. Will jerked away from Hannibal and then full on slapped him, tears free flowing and a look of utter disgust on his face. "DON'T ******** TOUCH ME!" Will stood and took a few steps away from Hannibal, his whole body shaking. "I can't believe you even used that incident! You should be surprised it didn't work! Don't you pay attention to the news?! I WAS THERE! That incident is the whole reason I even started seeing therapists!" Will rubbed at his tears, feeling very, very, dizzy. "It was bad enough having to be there while I was myself, I don't need to be there while I am HIM either!" Will sobbed out. Obviously he was far more distressed than when he had woken from the last one. He swayed on his feet, tangling on hand in his hair as the world spun.

"D-Dammnit… What the hell-" And with that Will promptly passed out.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal wasn't expecting Will to come out in that way, he had and he sure didn't expect to be slapped in the face and so hard. Hannibal's face turned with the impact of the male's hand meeting his face, which also gave him a stun and a red mark on his face. He was just as shocked as Will was. Hannibal didn't reach up to touch his face, he didn't lash out at Will. There was no way that Hannibal knew that Will was the teacher that had first been shot. He knew it was a teacher, but not Will.

Hannibal stood back, letting Will take out his anger, not defending himself, not yet. Finally, he moved forward just a little bit towards Will, his hand out slightly, palm up. "Will, I am sorry." That was all he could get out, Will was clearly getting more and more distressed. As his legs gave out, Hannibal moved forward, quickly and caught Will before he hit the floor. Guess that was enough for the night. Hannibal wasn't sure if Will would come back after this incident. He really hopped he did so Will wouldn't have to bounce to different therapists. Shifting, Hannibal picked Will up and carried him to the guest room, which was done the hall from his own bedroom. It was late anyways. He wasn't sure if Will would wake later or if he'd sleep through the morning. Setting the male down, Hannibal removed his shoes then covered him up half way with the blanket.

Hannibal tugged on the collar of Will's shirt. "Of course." Hannibal looked at the scar on his shoulder before putting his collar back and covering him up all the way with the blanket. Before closing the door, Will's dogs slipped into the bedroom, walking over to the bed before laying down on the floor. Closing the door, Hannibal went to his study to pull out Will's journal. He looked for that incident and found it only a page after where he had stopped reading. A hand setting on the page and the other at his side, Hannibal sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. If only he had read on just a little more, if only he had known about it before sending Will back into that nightmare that he had to live through. Then again, maybe it was best that they used that one.

One that was so strong, it would take a lot to bring Will back. If they found something that could bring him back from that then they could bring him back from any of them. Slowly sitting down, Hannibal went back to reading through Will's journal, writing in his own note book about what he found inside. He recorded their experiment before he finally got tired and headed for his own bed. Though even as he laid down, the blankest stopping at his mid chest, Hannibal could still not find sleep no matter how tired he grew. His mind a buzzing, it was just filled about what he had seen. Though in Will's head he relived the incident through the killer's eyes, on the outside he shook and trembled. At one point it looked like he was having a seizure. Hannibal rolled over onto his side, his hand slipping under the first pillow his head was resting on before he finally fell asleep.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will slipped into a straight black out, not dreaming about a single thing, as he did so often after reliving that particular nightmare. There was no need to see it in his dreams because he had already seen that incident in person so the reality of that situation was to real for his mind to put himself in the position of the killer more than once. Will slept for a long while, floating in the black peace that was his vacant mind. By the time Will finally woke up again he was feeling lethargic and as if he had slept far to long. He often didn't wake up any later than six, even on his day's off, because he so often had to walk the dogs, so when he looked at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it read eight he could understand why he was so groggy.

He couldn't figure out though why he had a clock on his left nightstand though, or when his clock had changed color, and for a moment hw was very confused as to where he was at. It came back to him with a sudden rush and Will was closing his eyes as he remembered what had happened the ngiht before. He couldn’t believe that he had actually hit DR. Lecter. He shouldn’t have done that, it wasn't the other mans fault that he had sent him into that world, and Will didn't know why he had done it. He guessed it was because he was still feeling that boy's anger, because Will never lost himself in that world, and so he had lashed out.

Will carefully sat up, pushing the covers off his body, and then carefully got out of bed. He listened silently for any noise outside the bedroom door and heard the small sounds of life, the dogs not in the bedroom with him anymore, and he carefully stepped out. Will made his way to what he assumed was the bathroom across the hall, and thankfully he was right, and looked himself over in the mirror. He had dark circles under his eyes, even though he had just slept so long, and he looked slightly paler than usual. He looked like a man worn down by time and illness and for Will he certainly felt that way. His feet were aching a bit and his joints were a bit sore from the missing four hours yesterday, but all in all he wasn't feeling to horrible.

Will used the restroom, washed his hands, and then left to go say his apologies to Hannibal. The room was now cleaned up, looking much nicer than the glance he had gotten the night before, and Hannibal was in the kitchen. Will made his way over, the dogs coming out wagging their tails and greeting him, and he carefully looked at Hannibal. The man's cheek still showed evidence of the slap and Will felt his guilt rise. "I am so sorry about slapping you last night." Will leaned against the entry way and crossed his arms over his stomach. "I didn't mean to… well I did but I mean I don't usually slap people. It wasn't your fault that you picked that "incident" to use so I shouldn’t have taken it out on you" Will didn't look at Hannibal, refusing to meet his gaze.

Will decided he wasn't going to mention the fact that when Hannibal had touched him, and called his name, it had helped pull him out of the state he was in. He knew how that incident usually ended and was never the way it had last night. Usually Will would feel regret when he saw the look of horror on his own face, and then feel like he had done everything wrong when he saw himself try to stop the bleeding on him. Will had seen that in the boy's face when, against everything he should have done, he tried to save the boy who had just shot up the school. The boy still died of course but will clearly saw the regret and remorse and heard it in the boy's voice when he had started crying and saying he was sorry. Will knew he should have still felt those things and seen that last part but Hannibal's touch, and shout, had broken the hold before that occurred.

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal didn't sleep too long, never really did. He was always so used to late nights and early mornings. He had always been like that. Always since he was young he had this sleeping routine. It never changed and it never bothered him. Getting up, Hannibal walked into the master bathroom that was attached to his bedroom. Showering, he changed into a fresh suit. He had no appointments today, he had originally planned on reading through the rest of Will's journal to learn more about how he had been doing, what else he experienced. Though since Will was there and if he agreed to stay, Hannibal would have a session with him in his home. He spent a good amount of the early morning cleaning up the mess he had made last night while trying to pull Will back. Quietly, Hannibal opened the guest bedroom to let the three dogs out. He led them to the back yard to run around and use the bathroom. They ran back to him, paws damp from the morning dew. Though there was a lot more this morning and the clouds looked thicker and darker.

The three dogs sniffed Hannibal's hands and shoes. He reached down and touched their cold, wet noses before turning away from the large, open space to open the door and let them in before walking in behind them. He shut the door, looking out the glass doors at the dark horizon. It was why he chose to live far from the city. More space, less noise and solitary. He truly enjoyed it. The three dogs ran in front of him excited, their nails clacking on the hard wood floor, leaving wet paw prints where ever they walked. Hannibal smiled to them before walking into the kitchen, grabbing three bowls, he set them on the counter. He didn't have any dog food, but steamed rice and eggs would work just as well. It didn't take him long to make their breakfast. He set the three bowls down on the floor and filled a larger bowl up with water for them, setting it near the trio.

By the time he heard the water running from the other bathroom, Hannibal was starting to make him and Will breakfast. He usually didn't have people over, but when and if he did, then he made sure to make them meals and be a good host. When Will came into the kitchen, Hannibal was in the middle of making the batter for crapes. "It is all right Will. You are not the first to have hit me." Hannibal smiled at Will. "I am sorry that I had chose that incident. It had slipped my mind that you were the teacher there." He looked up from what he was doing for a moment. "There's coffee on the table if you'd like. I am making crapes for breakfast, sit and make yourself comfortable. Your dogs have and they have been fed." He looked over to the three who all crowded Will and bothered him for attention. Hannibal never really wanted any pets or thought to get any. He never really had time for them himself. Though he could understand why somebody like Will would want or even need pets around. If he didn't have any, then Hannibal would have suggested it. They could be really therapeutic.

"You had said last night that after what happened, it started happening when you could get into the minds of the killers correct?" Hannibal looked up to Will as he poured batter into the hot pan to let it cook before flipping it and plating it. He continued to makes the crapes until the batter was gone. Once it was, he washed and cut up the berries. Carefully setting them down, he brought several plates over to the table and set them down. "Come eat." Hannibal motioned to the smaller kitchen table. His coffee had been sitting on the table from before he started cooking anything. "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few things about that day."

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will still felt guilty about having hit Hannibal but knew that in his line of work he probably was hit a lot. Not because he was a bad therapist but because he seemed to be a really, really, good one. He wasn't there to appease you or tell you "yeah your crazy, here are some meds" he was actually trying to help. Will guessed this was the reason why he wasn't just straight up leaving after what he did last night, just bowing out and going home, because he knew that Dr. Lecter would help him and that everything would be okay. Will needed everything to go back to normal, he needed to BE normal, because if things continued the way they were he would end up not being able to teach his students and that was the worst nightmare of all.

Will shifted at the others question about when all of this started and he nodded "Sort of. That's when I started losing time. I have had the nightmares for a few years. Almost my whole life, certainly all my adult life." Will nodded when the other mentioned the coffee and he walked over to the table, giving his dogs some attention on his way, and grabbed his own cup of coffee before waiting for Hannibal to come sit with him as well.  Will looked up at the other when he asked if he could ask him a few questions about the incident and he slowly nodded, grabbing a crepe and filling it up with some berries.

"I can talk about it, I don't have a problem with that, but try to stay away from too much description. I know I have post traumatic stress disorder from the shooting, very few people would, I also have nerve damage from the bullet as well." Will sighed "Loud noises can sometimes cause flash backs and each flash back has the high potential to sending me into reliving the moment. Each time I relive that moment my sister say's it looks like I am having a seizure and one time I started screaming. I don't usually move during that one, mostly just a lot of shaking." Will shifted slightly and cut into his crepe, taking a bite, and finding it actually very pleasant.

It had been a long time since he had good homemade food, he wasn't a great cook, and so the crepe was really quite a treat for him. He gave his compliments briefly and then continued to eat while he waited for Hannibal to ask the questions that he needed. The dogs sat in the living room, staying off the furniture, and sometimes playing with each other as the two ate and spoke.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal just listened to Will as he spoke about what sets him off, how certain things could send him into that state and what his sister said about him in that state. "Yes, I noticed that as well. You were shaking last night. I thought it might have been a seizure. That shaking could become a problem though." Hannibal pointed out as he carefully picked up the thin, golden brown crape, filling it with the berries and some cream cheese that he had set out with the plates. Hannibal nodded to Will as he thanked him for the meal, thinking carefully on how to word his next question so it wouldn't be too descriptive. "I will not describe any of it, but I have to ask what did you see in that boy's face?" Hannibal was guessing that because of either the shared fear, anxiety or hopelessness that Will had subconsciously made an attachment to that boy and in his endeavors.

"What about your sister? Where was she when this happened?" Slowly, he cut off the end of the crape before sticking his fork in it. Lifting it, he turned it around to look at it from all angles before finally eating it. He truly had a deep appreciation for food. "How close are you two?" He had begun to ignore his food as he questioned Will, taking a few bites here and there but finishing off his coffee. While Will spoke, Hannibal carefully studied his face, his reaction and listened carefully to his explanations. Hannibal stood to get them both more coffee as Will spoke, still listening very closely to him. He returned with the filled mugs, placing the one Will had been using in front of him carefully. "What about when you go into that boy, how do you feel when you look down at yourself? How you feel when you see all the emotions running through you?" Hannibal was being as careful as he could with his words, picking and choosing what he said to be sure he didn't set anything off.

It was hard for him to be careful when he had to use some descriptions to explain what he wanted Will to tell him. "I have no appointments today, so if you'd like we can continue this for however long you'd like and there would be no reason to worry about charge because I won't. Though, if you have other engagements, then I understand and will be happy to give you and your... dogs a ride home." Hannibal offered, just like a good host. He wasn't offering to be a good host, but because he did want to help Will in every way. There was also a benefit to keeping Will close to him of course. As long as he could shape Will to his fitting and keep him from the police, then he would always remain safe. Maybe even trigger something in him that would release all the killers inside him that he had lived as in that alternate reality.

In good hands, Will could recover and become a fully functioning citizen. In the wrong hands, he could become a killer, just like Hannibal and twist others around to do as he wanted.... just like Hannibal. Though unlike anybody, Hannibal had one good hand and one bad hand. He could provide both to Will and in turn, Hannibal's work would be rewarded. If he found the trigger to pull Will back, then he had to find the right trigger to pull him in. Even when he achieved this, Hannibal would keep Will safe, bring him under his protective wing so no harm would ever come to him. Something inside Hannibal wanted to dominate Will. Keep him close and keep him for himself. Will's sister refereed her brother to him so there would be no way she'd tell Will to stop seeing him, especially if Will was getting results.

Finally, Hannibal finished his first crape, taking a second and proceeding to eat it between words and while listening to the male on the other side of the small kitchen table. "When you hear these stories, on the news or read about them in the paper, do you need visual aid to put everything together and live it out or is talk of the crime enough?" He should be writing all of this down, but he knew he could remember it all until after breakfast when he could write everything down, record all of the questions and answers Will had given him.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will nodded very carefully as Hannibal proceeded to asked him questions, the man obviously being very careful about his word choice, and will was rather glad. He knew that it was hard not to describe things to someone when asking them questions like this so know that Hannibal was willing to go through the trouble was nice. Will sighed slowly as Hannibal asked the first question, pushing his food away and just grabbing his coffee, this was a hard question in and of it's self because it was hard to remember what he saw. He knew what he felt from the boy but what he had seen was something completely different. "There were a lot of things I saw on his face. At first it was nothing but anger, disgust, and rage but then it changed to desperation anger and rage, then I couldn’t see him and when things were coming to an end there was guilt, so much guilt, shame and depression. Regret and he kept telling me he was very sorry, that he shouldn’t have done it, most of all there was fear. I don't think he really realized what he was doing until it happened to him." Will shrugged and sipped at his coffee.

"My sister was at home when all of this happened, it was her day off, she was actually heading down to the school because we were going to go to lunch. Her and I have always had a great relationship. I love my sister very much and she loves me, she wants' to help me, even if she does nag that I need to hurry up and get married already." Will rolled his eyes at that. His sister brought the subject up almost every time that they talk because she was already married. She figured what Will needed was a good reason to stay grounded and sane and she didn't believe that the school was enough. He didn't think he could really tell her that he was going to get married…. Because gay marriage wasn't legalized in their state. He didn't even know how to broach the subject of telling his sister he was gay.

The next question had will shifting uncomfortably. He knew how to answer this question but he felt that it may be "wrong" in some way. He felt like he was taking a test and he had to answer the questions right. So far he had gotten the easiest ones right so he only hoped his streak would continue. "I… feel a lot of things from him. Pity isn't one. More anger, confusion, a bit of realization. I see myself as afraid and confused, horrified by what was happening, but generally it's all exactly as it happened. Details outside of it may change a bit, like the colors of the books or something, but otherwise what I feel is what I had seen on his face when it had all happened." Will sighed, and looked down at his dogs.

Will looked up at the other when he asked if he wanted to continue and Will nodded. "Yeah I would like to continue. I have no previous engagements, the kids all have the day off for some federal holiday, and after that it's the weekend so…Yeah I am fine to stay and talk some more. I need all the help I can get and since you aren't charging… well I think I get the benefit here really." Will Smiled at Hannibal a little, trying to suppress the ridiculous urge to blush after what he said. He sounded like he was flirting! He wasn't flirting! Was he? Oh god Will was flirting! Why was he flirting with his therapist? Alright the guy was attractive but that did not condone flirting! Damn will's sexual attraction to older, intelligent, men! It would be his downfall one day.

Hannibal s next question provided a quick cover for Will but he wondered if the other man had caught on to what he had done. He prayed to god the man wouldn’t stop treating him if he did… a lot of people didn't take to kindly to treating homosexuals for a lot of things. Will looked away from Hannibal, hopefully hiding the embarrassing blush that had just barely touched his cheeks "Usually it takes visuals, pictures or video, but sometimes if the person is descriptive enough it will work. Most of the time though I only slip if I see it visually unless I was actually there during the crime." Will leaned his chin in his hand. "My sister tried to tell me about one once, see if she could "activate" me but she's horrible at describing things so it didn't really work." Will sighed at that and leaned back in his chair again.

"I don't tell her that though, she likes to think she is very good at it, there are a few things I don’t tell her…. Or anyone really."

 Mute Black Sheep: As Will answered the first part of the question, Hannibal simply nodded, gathering information for both personal and professional reasons. Hannibal nodded again and sat back in the chair, his hands folded neatly on the table in front of him. He too had stopped eating and his second cup of coffee was already gone, only the smell and the rich stain remained on the bottom of the glass mug. "What is sounds like to me, is that in the moment when he stared down at you, you two did have a connection of some sort, which may be why it still haunts you to this day." Since Will had even said he suffered PTSD from the event, it had left an even larger scar in his memory. As he had said before, Will had suffered from nightmares for most of his adult life, so what happened at the school much have really kicked in that dormant ability.

Hannibal simply smiled to Will as he outright flirted with him. Good, looked like Will was getting comfortable around him. It was amazing how a little kindness could really bring somebody out of their shell. His light brown eyes narrowed just slightly when Will looked away, trying to hide the blush that had clearly covered his cheeks. Hannibal watched Will as he continued to try to hide it, dare he say it was cute? "Have you ever tried to train yourself in selective hearing? It sounds like a joke, but for people who are sensitive to descriptions, they can train themselves for selective hearing. In your case, if you were to avert your eyes and have selective hearing, it may do the trick in keeping you here." Will's next statement struck up Hannibal's curiosities.

"May I ask what? It may help uncover some fears you have that could be causing these states that you go into. If they share an emotion like fear or anger that could be pushed to the extreme." It was best that Will didn't keep anything from him not only for Hannibal's gain but so Hannibal could truly help Will through this. If he laid it all out in front of him, Hannibal could dig around in Will's mind and see what the problem was and how to fix it and how it use it when he wanted that Will out to play. Hannibal stood, fixing his blazer before motioning to the living room. "Shall we? It is much more comfortable and warmer in the living room." Hannibal also wanted to get his notebook to start writing more into it and record what they had talked about in the kitchen.

Once they were sitting in the chairs, black note book out and on Hannibal's leg, pen ready in hand. He had spent a few moment writing down everything from the kitchen before looking back to Will. "What are those things you keep from your sister?" He asked more out right, it was direct, but Hannibal saw no need to beat around the bush since he was Will's therapist after all. He would need to know these things in the end and help Will out with anything else he needed that could come from those secrets.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will nodded as Hannibal explained everything to him, going into detail about what was probably bothering Will and bringing a great deal of understand. Will could see how in that moment he had made a connection with the boy, or maybe the moment after when he was trying to save him, because the boy had been so scared of death like Will had been only moments before. When Hannibal mentioned selective hearing though Will couldn’t help but be confused. He didn't think that was something that was actually possible but as Hannibal went on Will realized more and more that it would be perfect for him. "That would be great to try! Honestly I think that would help me a lot if I could just block things like that out." Will smiled, feeling kind of excited at the idea.

Hannibal motioned for them to go into the living room and Will followed with only a nod. The next few questions had him a bit on edge and he sat on the chair farthest from Hannibal. Will waited until the man returned from getting the note book and then looked down at his hands. He wasn't sure about telling Hannibal what he hadn't told his sister, the idea of actually telling someone was terrifying, but he knew that he really did have to tell someone. Maybe it would help him a little bit, or Hannibal could help him find a way to tell his sister. "I… I haven't ever told her… or anyone really that I am gay." Will shifted in his seat, not looking up at Hannibal.

"I mean I had always been more into men than women and for a long while I only date women but I lost interest in woman and soon after I found out I was infertile. I don't know, I guessed there was no point in being with women at all since I couldn’t have kid, so I just changed to men. I can't tell anyone though because it can't get out to the school. If the school knows I will certainly get fired and then… well I don't know what I would do." Will sighed heavily at that. "I guess that's the biggest thing… Also the fact that I had sex with her fiancé before they got together. And…." Will trailed off a bit. Looking a bit distant.

"I never told her about this one relationship I had… about two years ago when I got together with this one guy… it wasn't pretty. There was a lot off yelling, hitting, and other things. I wish I would have been smart enough to get away from him a bit sooner though." Will shrugged, crossing his legs, and looked at Hannibal. "I did try eventually but no one really cares when a gay man asks for help because he's being beat. That guy was the whole reason I even moved to the new school and town. Basically if I had been able to get away from him sooner I wouldn’t have been at the school when the shooting happened because I would have been back at my old home."

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal wrote something down in the notebook before Will finally told him. When he did, Hannibal stopped writing and looked up at Will, slowly lowering his pen and leaving in between the two open pages. Gay? Will didn't give off any vibe or sign prior to the flirting that he was gay. It did and it didn't surprise that Will was gay. It surprised him to an extent and no more. Hannibal nodded slowly, he had picked his pen back up and began to write in the notebook again. "It can be dangerous. Being in an abusive relationship once opens the door for many more." Hannibal wasn't fazed by Will's confession. "I don't discriminate Will. It doesn't bother me and I do not turn anybody away because of it." Hannibal spoke as a quickly wrote things down in the note book.

"A dangerous chain of events really. What would have happened if you never met that man who hurt you? You wouldn't have moved, you wouldn't have been shot and you wouldn't be going through any of this. But where would you be right now if none of that had ever happened. Do you think you would be happy? Many people argue that no matter what, you cannot escape certain points in your life. No matter what you do, you will always end up right where you are now." Hannibal stared at Will, noting down that Will never made eye contact. "That indecent, the boy's apologies and his fears, it could have really reached you. When I said you are over empathetic, I wasn't lying. You place yourself in the most emotional person, you feel what they feel, you go through what they lived through.

You spoke of how you'd bring in strays from the streets. That is another sign. Animals are therapeutic and in your case they are very much so. You are getting out what could be being bottled up. There are several animal shelters around here where you could volunteer at. It would help keep your mind off of the news and it would anchor you here. You have lives that depend on you. At home and around you. I am actually very glad to see that you do have dogs there for you." Hannibal gave a tight smile. Hannibal continued on talking with Will, getting to know him better before actually getting in too deep with anything just yet. Though Hannibal did want to push Will back into that state, not with the same situation but something less severe. He wanted to try a few more things with him to test to see what could bring him back out of that state. It would be time consuming and it would take a lot out of Will but it needed to be done.

"Would you mind if we tried what he did last night again today? With something that you didn't experience but with something recent. What about the one from yesterday, where you lost four hours? It was about that girl on the news correct?" Hannibal looked back to his notes from last night to see what he tried that didn't work.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will looked up at Hannibal as he spoke, his hands clasped together and his thumbs running against the skin, before he sighed and hung his head, shaking his head slightly and then nodding. Hannibal was right in a way. The pets were a bit for his own therapy, a way to save something when he couldn’t save those teenagers he was watching over. It was a self centered way to think but Will knew that the only reason he took the strays in was to help himself. As Hannibal continued on talking, will answering questions and sometimes speaking himself, Will slowly became more and more comfortable. They spoke for a very long time, hours almost it seemed, and then Hannibal was asking the question that Will had felt would come.

After so long of just talking though, of not worrying an just getting his stresses out, Will felt he could have confidence in not only himself but also Hannibal. This man would not send him back into the worst of the worst, not after what happened last night, and surely Hannibal would try to pull him out. He would try his very hardest to make sure that will did not get completely lost and had a tether to this world and not the ones his mind created. Will sat back in his chair, pulling his hand away from the German shepherded he was petting, and he nodded. He didn't want to say yes, not verbally, because it seemed like somehow it would break that feeling of pleasant conversation. As if him saying "do it to me" would cause whatever reality he had to break apart.

Will took a deep breath and sighed "Yeah… yeah alright let's do it. We need to try don't we?" Will looked down at the dog who now had his head in his lap and gently pet his head again. The dog gave a small whine, as if feeling nervous himself, and Will nodded. "That… murder last night seems like a good place to start. It is the first time I have been out for that long…" Will took a deep breath and closed his eyes, waiting for Hannibal to start speaking, and then he heard the others words. His mind drifted for a moment, the words slowly churning to form thought and images in his head, and Will just had to try and breath as the other spoke.

Slowly his mind started to fade into that separate reality, that place he had been last night, and a small shudder started in his body. Will drifted away and into himself as he became the killer, as he became the one angry, and he subconsciously waited to be woken up. Will had just been at the part where the woman confronted the victim, just barely at the start, when he hear his name being called. He felt a hand on his shoulder and could smell the cologne he had realized Hannibal always wore. Will's eyes blinked open and he looked around "How… how long was I?"

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal nodded once when Will finally agreed. Hannibal stood up, setting his notebook aside to stand in front of Will. Hannibal was glad for Will agreeing to try this once again. Maybe he would find something, even a little something that would help out. He began to describe the scene that had been discovered and soon, Will was out. Hannibal wouldn't let him stay out too long. Hannibal tried a few more gentle approaches this time. He used each of Will's dogs to see if it would help bring him back. Nothing. For half an hour, Hannibal tried multiple things, all to no avail. It was when he saw Will begin to shake did he finally moved forward, setting his hand on the male's shoulder. "Will, Will!" Hannibal called firmly from where he stood, giving the slightest shake to try to pull Will from it.

Will came out of it rather quick this time, maybe because it wasn't as severe as the other one was. "Thirty minutes. Though near the end, you began to shake." Hannibal glanced to the watch on his wrist. Picking up his note book again, he recorded the time and the other things he had tried. "This is the second time that you've responded to touch and your name. Has your sister tried to pull you out of something like that before?" The man didn't sit, not yet. There were a few other things he would like to try. "If you don't mind, I would like to try something else. Not sending you in there, but keeping you from going there all together." Hannibal stood in front of Will. "You are Will Graham. You aren't anybody else. Tell yourself these things, keep talking to yourself as I describe." Hannibal crossed his arms over his chest, letting Will repeat whatever he wanted to remind himself of who he was before he began describing another lesser scene from a few months ago.

An accident. There was a woman who had too much to drink and decided to drive home drunk. It was early in the morning, about five when a man riding his bike was going across the street and she hit him. She was driving too fast and hadn't stopped to help him. If he had gotten medical attention, he could have lived. Hannibal continued to describe the scene to Will while he tried to keep himself there.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will looked up at Hannibal when the other said thirty minutes and he sigh a little. It wasn't that long but the images had only just started in a span of thirty minutes. He had just barely brought himself into that reality and to know that it took so long to reach just that was disconcerting. Will looked up at Hannibal when he asked about his sister and he nodded "Yes. That was the first thing she tried. I am sure the few others who have seen it have tried that too." Will wasn't even sure who else had seen it but whoever else had they hadn't bothered to mention it. Will wanted to mention something else but then Hannibal was suggesting another exercise and will was having to repeat the words.

Will took a few deep breaths as the other explained the scene and repeated what he was told. He repeated it and repeated it as Hannibal spoke to him, his mind starting to slowly drift, and then he found his words falling further and further and he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to think about thi murder, this one had a habit of shifting to the victim, and he tried to hold it back. A small amount of panic welled up inside of him and he had to do something else. Instead he focused on Hannibal, he focused on the memory of his scent and the other saying his name.

Will focused his mind on the man sitting in front of him and he found himself pulling out of his head and when Hannibal finished describing the scene will was still there. He looked up at Hannibal, feeling so very guilty, and then away. He still never met Hannibal's eyes, he never wanted to meet his eyes, but will was sure that the other could see the guilt in his without them meeting. Will reached down and gently pet his dog, not wanting to tell the other what he had thought about but knowing that Hannibal would ask. He had to ask and he had to know. This wasn't something that Will could just hideaway and keep for himself because it could be a key to keeping him from fading away.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal kept describing the scene until there was nothing else left to describe. So instead, he quietly said Will's name to remind help remind him of who he was. He could see the man slipping, eyes shifting and rolling back, the shake of his body and he could practically smell the panic coming off of him. He was losing him. Hannibal spoke up, saying his name a little louder. He didn't touch him because he wanted Will to come back from voice only. Touch had been helpful in the last few times Will left and he couldn't rely heavily on touch alone to bring him back. Though it looked like Hannibal was going to lose Will, the man slowly came back.

He was still there with him. Fully conscious and guilty. If Will was trying to hide his guilt, he was doing a very bad job. "What did you focus on?" Hannibal asked, standing to his feet yet again. "You didn't keep yourself here. Did you?" Maybe it was his own fault for talking while Will was trying to keep himself there. Hannibal slowly sunk down back onto the chair, carefully crossing one leg over the other as he stared at Will for a few moments. "What brought you back the last few times? Your dogs did not work, no matter how much they touched your and whined. You said your sister's touch or voice did not help either. What was different this time?" Hannibal stood, getting a little closer to Will, standing a about a foot or two away from him. His mind went back to the flirting Will had done to him during breakfast. Then to the confession about his sexuality. What was Will's preference in men? he couldn't help but to think about what it could be or be curious about it. it was only natural right? While Hannibal had no real preference in the gender of his partner, well he preferred women's hearts and men's brains, he wasn't picky.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will watched Hannibal, his eyes staying carefully away from the others, and he felt like the other man was a snake. A twisting, writhing, snake in the grass just looking for the point to strike at those who came to close. No… that wasn't right. Will was the snake, he was afraid and wanted to defend himself, Hannibal was… was… Hannibal was the catcher trying to coax him out of a ditch by the road, to keep him from getting lost, he was the handler trained to tame the snake. Maybe snake wasn't right? No, not a snake, Will was a frightened animal of some sort and Hannibal was the one trying to save him. Will wasn't sure he liked the idea of that, of being an animal, it reminded him of… Will didn't want to think about that. Will took a deep breath and then the other was asking him the question Will didn't want to answer and he had to think quickly.

The words spilled from his mouth when Hannibal came close. He gave them no approval to leave and yet there they tumbled into the air to sit between him and Hannibal. "My father had the same cologne as you." Will felt it like a bitter lie and it stung him with the way he so easily said it as if it was the truth. "It brought me back… reminded me of him. It's been a long time since I have seen him." And for good reason. Will hated his father, a lot, he hated the man for every beating he gave him and every scarred memory. Will leaned as far back from Hannibal as he could "I felt myself slipping earlier and I remember the cologne and… a memory from my childhood. I hadn't ever thought to use him." Will was surprised by how easy it was to lie, how smooth it felt leaving him, and how much he believed his own words.

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal didn't relinquish his spot, he actually pressed on a little closer. Sliding his foot a little more towards the couch where Will sat, his body moving slowly like two large ice monoliths slowly closing in on the trapped exhibitionist. Though Will never met his eyes, Hannibal stared down at him, his own light brown eyes hard and cold as Will slurred out a quick fabricated reason. He could see the guilt in Will's eyes. He could never really lie. The man was far too empathetic. He'd feel guilty for lying to his dogs. Hannibal slowly reached down, taking a firm grasp on Will's chin between his thumb and index finger, trapping it there before he slowly tiled Will's head back, staring him in the eyes for the first time.

"Don't lie to me Will. You will only hinder yourself." His voice was low and smooth, like the words just slipped past his unmoving lips, somebody wearing him as a mask, speaking through the mouth piece. "I am no wearing cologne today. You bite your lower lip, tilt your head and look down when you lie." He had witnessed it when he spoke with Will yesterday, the first time they met. He asked a question that Will had given an answer to with the same gestures and gave the truth today. "What pulled you back Will? Do not try to lie to me." He was commanding without being overly threatening. He did not appreciate being lied to, though he was mostly the one doing the lying. He knew the ins and out of deception. It was his game, he invented it, made all the rules and owned all of it. Nobody could slip a lie past him.

Slowly, Hannibal released his hold on Will's chin once he was sure the man would keep his head up to look up at him. To feel small against Hannibal's frame and stare. "You were slipping and you had stopped talking while I continued." Hannibal wasn't asking a question or stating a fact, he was starting the sentence for Will's real answer. Another slid of his foot, a few more inches and Will's chin would just touch Hannibal's button up shirt and in a few inches, his leg would come into contact with Will's crotch if he did not stop moving. He was hoping that with the added pressure of the close contact and his slow moving leg would bring the real answer out of Will before their bodies could touch.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will hadn't even noticed the other reach out and he certainly hadn't expected the other to grab his chin. Suddenly Will was hyper aware of what was going on, of the sliding foot, and the fact that he had very much been caught. He was forced to look up but will did not meet Hannibal's eyes, he did not even try, instead he stared at a careful point on the others forehead just trying not to be caught by the other males gaze. When he spoke though Will locked on his eyes out of instinct. I t was for an instant, a glance on his way down to the others chin, but it was enough for Will to see how fully caught he was.

When Hannibal said he wasn't wearing cologne Will felt a blush start low in his neck out of embarrassment and shame. Of course the man wouldn’t be, that would be dumb, and no cologne smelled like… that. Will heard the others foot slide forward and he bit back to gasp as Hannibal inched closer. Will felt trapped, caught, like an animal but when Hannibal spoke in the next moment he felt placated. Then the hand was moving from his chin and Will was able to avert his gaze to a point just over Hannibal's shoulder. Will didn't like how close the other was, he could almost feel his heat, and he could smell him again.

It was a spice will did not know, the smell of what he had cooked this morning, and then a scent Will could only account to the woods. It was nothing he had smelled before and it was purely Hannibal Lecter. It held not threat at the front but Will could sense the danger, he could feel it, and he blocked it. Will heard the other speak again and he swallowed, not wanting to say, but then Hannibal was closer and will could not move back anymore. He was stuck with the other so close and Will wanted to get away. He knew how he could, because there was no physical way to escape, and so he looked between a point on Hannibal's cheeks and the wall for a few moments in debate.

The foot slid forward again but before it could reach it's destination Will spoke. "I noticed when you pulled me out of the first time." The foot stopped and Will looked away fully "I tried to ignore it but I was deep, very deep, and somehow all you did was give me a shake and say my name and I was back. I… wasn't done the day before either, when you pulled me out, I still had time when you brought that memory back. The boy hadn't died yet so I still had time when you said my name and grabbed me. Today as well and this time…" Will was so reluctant to go on, he didn't want to, but he had too. He let out a defeated sigh "You scent brought me back as well. It hit me as something real and so did you touch and voice. Earlier when I began to slip… I remembered that. I remembered the moment you pulled me out and it kept me grounded. I think it's because you’re the first person who had been able to pull me out." Will sighed, waiting for the other to move back.

Will felt wrong for having admitted it and he bit his lip, feeling even more guilty, and he just wasn't sure what else to say then that.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal's foot stopped the moment Will began to speak. Clearly, the close physical contact really bothered him. It was a wonder how he ever had sex before. He did know that you had to be close to another human to have sex right? As Will spoke, Hannibal kept a close eye on Will's expressions. The flushed face and Will so uncomfortable with their closeness. It wasn't until Will was finished that Hannibal pulled his foot away and slowly back off, rewarding Will for his honesty and truth. Hannibal remained standing though a few feet in front of Will, letting him relax and come down from what he had been feeling. "I do apologize for pushing you like I had, but you must understand. For me to help you, you cannot keep things from me and you cannot lie. Do not spoon feed me lye and tell me it is water." Hannibal turned and sat back down in the chair he was in before.

"Though through this, I am glad to see that you finally, have an anchor." Even better that it was him. He wasn't a narcissist, but in order to truly dominate Will, twist him to his liking, he needed Will to depend on him one hundred percent. He needed all of Will's trust and faith. In receiving them, Hannibal would reward Will. A reward in Hannibal's eyes alone. To make another being like him, anybody would call it an abomination, he would call it a work of art. A true master piece. His legacy. Two artists, side by side, showing the world a new life, a glorified death. True beauty.

Hannibal crossed one leg over the other, smothering the excited bubble that began to well in his chest from the mere thought. Now that Hannibal had and was Will's anchor, he just needed to find something that would set him off into a killer's state without describing anything to him, he needed to find or fit a trigger word. Of course, that would take much more time and Hannibal needed to protect Will from any advances from anybody who sought his gift for the 'greater good'. "Thank you, for telling me the truth and confiding in me." Hannibal let a rare, true smile slip by. It was very much unlike his professional smile. It reached his eyes teeth showed and he looked much more harmless when doing so.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will felt the other back off and carefully he felt the tension in his own body flow out. He was no longer trapped in his seat, at least not fully, and even though he felt the need to stand and put more distance between himself and Hannibal he just sat and watched the other move. Will looked up at the other at the apology and then mentioning that he couldn't lie. Will knew this, he really did, but to be dependent on the doctor already was… strange. It made Will feel like he was suddenly bound in a way, bound without meaning to be, and he didn't know if he liked that or not. "I am sorry for lying Dr. Lecter. I just felt it was… odd that you can reach me through all of that when I hardly know you." Will heard the small snip in his voice, nothing to serious but a hint of disbelief.

Will looked to the dogs who were watching their owner carefully and he sighed heavily. "I am just glad you listened to me. Most doctors have called me a liar and turned me away by now." Will sighed and then felt his pocket buzz and he realized that he had his phone on him. Will pulled the phone out of his pocket and saw that it was his sister. He quickly answered the phone and was met by a panicked voice. "Woah! Woah Alana it's okay, I'm okay. I am with my therapist right now… Well yes that's why I am not home… how do you-?" Will stopped for a moment and then hung his head. "Someone called the cops because I didn't come home? When did you get there?" Will ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"No.. No I told you I am with my therapist. I am fine… it wasn't him. I highly doubt he would hunt me down after all this time Alana." Will chuckled as his sister went on about how scared she was for him and then she told him that she was at the police station and they were calling the cars back now. "You had cops out looking for me? Alana really that's too much. No one is after me-… Alana if it was him you would have to search for me… I would be in my house dead." Will held the phone away from his ear and when the voice calmed down he heard the words he really didn't want to. "Alana you don't… Alright… Alright! And no we aren't in an appointment per-say… I'll let him explain." Will held the phone out to Hannibal "She wants to talk to you… and so does someone else apparently.

Mute Black Sheep: "It is a simple defense mechanism. I will not turn you away because of it. I do not expect to earn your trust within the first few days." Hannibal knew it would take much longer to gain Will Graham's trust, respect and faith. Hannibal easily heard the buzzing and settled in the chair, letting Will answer his phone. As he did, Hannibal rose to leave the room to give him space, but even from where he was, he could hear and woman's shrilled voice. Hannibal arched a brow at her voice and Will's quick response to get the woman on the other line to calm down. Hannibal busied himself with fixing his button up shirt. One of Will's dogs was near him, sniffing his leg and lifting his head to look up at him.

Hannibal debated with touching the dog and letting it alone. His hand slowly lowered onto the top of the dog's head. He enjoyed the company of animals, never afraid of them but often didn't bother with them. They were just something that would need his time and attention. Hannibal wasn't really sure he would have time for animals. Lifting his head, he looked to Will when he mentioned being hunted down and remembered what Will had told him about his past relationship with an abusive partner. As the phone was held out to him, Hannibal only eyed it for a moment before giving a short nod and taking the phone. "This is Dr. Lecter." He paused and let her introduced herself. Yes, that's right. Alana. She had sent Will to him. She was the one that wrapped Will so beautifully and handed this gift over to him so easily. "Actually, last night about nine forty five, I found Will walking on a road with his dogs. He said he had begun his walk at five in the afternoon. He had lost four hours of his time and I brought him back to my home to see that was ate, got rehydrate and some proper sleep."

Hannibal shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Not irritated or displeased. Hannibal glanced to Will for a split second before looking down at the same dog from before who was nuzzling his free hand. It was almost such a domestic feeling. Animals in the house, their scent mixing with the smell of his home, the company at his side and their conversations. It wasn't from behind a desk, it wasn't in a designated area. It was in the intimate setting of his home. His familiar surroundings. Maybe to Will it could feel the same way or he could feel out of place all together. "I have been talking with him, finding out more about his state." He shifted again, becoming anxious to get off the phone and return to training his gift.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will watched Hannibal take the phone and then hung his head with a sigh, not really enjoying the fact that his sister was now chattering off Hannibal's ear, and he pet the two dogs that were not over by Hannibal and nuzzling him. "Hello doctor! My name is Alan Graham, I am Will's sister." Alana greeted the doctor on the phone and when she heard what Hannibal had to say she gasped "Four hours? Really? And he was out and about while this happened? My god he could have been hurt! Thank you doctor, so much, for helping my brother. I have tried to help him myself but due to personal interest I could never quite separate myself enough from my brother emotionally to help him." Alana went silent when Hannibal mentioned talking with Will and assessing him and she chuckled.

"I see. Thank you very much Dr. Lecter, truly, I love my brother and I am very glad you took care of him and made sure that he was alright. I will come pick him and his dogs up once you see fit, I don't know what you're doing at the moment, and take him home. I wouldn’t want to trouble you with having to drive him home. Thank you again Dr. Lecter." Alana waited for the others reply and then hung up so that she would stop interrupting what was going on. She didn't let on but she found it very.. odd that Dr. Lecter was taking so much interest in her brother. Will looked up at Hannibal when he handed him back the phone and he smiled in thanks.

It was kind of nice, staying in the others home like this, it wasn't as lonely. Will had his pets and a few co workers but he didn't have many friends, or people who would be willing to talk to him for long periods of time, he knew why and it was just… unfortunate. Will leaned back as he put his phone in his pocket and looked down at the dogs who were carefully nuzzling at Hannibals hand and sniffing his pant leg. "I am sorry about that Dr. Lecter. My sister worries, she has good reason to, thankfully they hadn't sent out to many cop cars to look for me before she called. This counts as the third time she has done this." Will chuckled slightly and then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Are we done for the day or is there more you wish to discuss?"

Mute Black Sheep: "It's no trouble at all." He says good bye then hangs up the phone, handing it back to Will, their fingers just brushing against each other. "Quite alright. She cares, nothing wrong with that." Hannibal had a distant look in his eyes for a few moments before blinking and returning to his seat, one of the dogs getting closer to him, panting on his arm. Though it must have been freezing outside, it was warm inside, the house very well insulated to keep the warmth in during the winter and cool air in during the summer.

"That all depends on you Will. You were free to go the moment you woke up. You didn't even have to come home with me. If there is anything else you'd like to discuss or try, then we may continue, if not then I hold no grudges." Hannibal gave Will another professional smile, his hand resting sill on his leg. The dog moved over and licked his resting hand, Hannibal jerking it away on instinct. The dog wagged its tail and moved closer, crawling half way onto Hannibal's lap. The man lifted his arms, waiting for the animal to get situated and comfortable before letting out a softer smile, resting his arms on the animal. If anything, this reminder of his humanity was all on purpose. Everything was done on purpose, just like the grazing of their fingers when he returned Will's phone to him. Hannibal had control of the entire situation and would never let go of the reigns or let Will escape.

Hannibal's fingers slowly curl as he carefully rubs the dog's side, the heat making him a little uncomfortable. He slipped his hands under the dog's chest, initiating it in the movement to get it off of him. As he does, the dog shifts and slowly moves off his lap, it getting several significant degrees cooler.


	2. Rolling Down Hill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will and Hannibal get a bit closer and Will does something he regrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second chapter out of 3 that we have saved up. I don't know how many chapters this story will be but I still hope you all enjoy it. Also there is a bit of creeper!Hannibal.

# Rolling Down Hill

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will watched Hannibal and the dog, this one was the smaller of the three name Jessi, a corgi mix he found a long while ago who really just love attention. She had a great deal of fur that Will had let grow out for the winter and he couldn’t help but smile as the dog enjoy a good petting from Hannibal. "Jessi down." Will said softly as Hannibal tried to get the dog off. The obedience was almost instant as the dog jumped off of Hannibal's lap and went to go sit by the other two. "Sorry. They have a good sense of people and if I trust you they trust you." Will rubbed at the back of his neck, sighing a little, and then looked up at Hannibal, staring just past him as he always did.

"I don't know what else there is to try. I think we got very far today… we did a lot. I guess I will just… have to wait and see. Thank you very much for helping me DR. Lecter." After that Will called up his sister to come pick him up and got his dogs read to go. When she came Will was instantly wrapped in a hug, her long arms wrapping tightly around his shoulders, and the dogs greeted her eagerly. Alan shook Hannibals hand and then took Will out to the car. Even with the sleep he had gotten though he looked exhausted as he left, the weariness on his face showing even more in the comfort of family, and it was apparent that his empathy was already making quite a big mark on him.

Will found himself at home with his sister, the dogs getting a good meal, and he spent the rest of his weekend recovering. He wrote down in his not book about his nightmare though, the one that he had right after the visit with Hannibal, and while things were not that different the dream was a bit stranger. Something felt like it had changed in his dream, not something to big, but through the whole terror filled thing he felt like he was missing something important in his dream, something just outside his vision that he knew was there.

When Will went back to work he was fine, he got plenty of rest, and he was able to teach the kids without problem. He last a long while… until the day of his appointment. It was a short day for the kids so after the class was over Will went to the teachers' lounge to converse with his colleges, when the news came on and he was faced with a brutal murder. Will stared at the TV for a moment, the others in the room realizing their mistake after a moment, and then will felt himself slipping. Will was instantly guided to sit down, trying to keep himself from slipping any further, and then he started mumbling a name "Therapist… Lecter… Call… Phone left pocket." Will felt someone reach into his pocket and then he was fading away.

"Hello? Hello is this the office of Dr. Lecter? Dr. Hannibal Lecter? My name is Beverly and I work with Will Graham? He's having some sort of… attack. He's starting to shake and he said to call you. We can't get any reaction out of him. Please send Dr. Lecter over!" Beverly left the information for where Hannibal could find them then hung up after that and everyone tried to get Will to come back as they waited.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal waved off Will's apology about his dogs, he really didn't mind it. Maybe when he had earned more of Will's trust, save it for another time, another day. Hannibal noded a few times and stands. "Yes, we did." Hannibal fixed his shirt yet again, a faint stain of a paw print on the front of his shirt. He took no indication that he noticed it. The shirt didn't matter. A simple, pressed, button up white shirt. Nothing more than that. An article of clothing he often wore when he was at home on the weekends or his days off. "Of course Will." Nodding, Hannibal led Will over to the door, picking up the three leashes and hooking them onto the dogs collars, handing the leather strips to Will as he walked him to the front door and out.

He had already made his call to his sister. The wait isn't long at all, she practically speeds down the street. Hannibal stands back from the pair, watching with calculating eyes as she hugged him, shaking his hand then leaving. Hannibal remains in his front yard until he can no longer see the car on the road. What an interesting pair, what an interesting man. His fascination only grows. Hannibal busies himself with recording everything that had taken placed through the day in his notebook then turns to the old, tattered basic notebook. He flipped through the pages, picking up where he left off. While reading, he recorded everything in his own hard covered notebook. In it contains Will's fears, his haunting nightmares, everything that triggers him and sets him off. And again, he feels like Will has been wrapped in beautiful paper adorned with ribbon and a large bow. All for him.

Hannibal sits at his desk, still reading through Will's notebook. He had just seen his last patient before lunch. He has some time before his lunch break actually starts. Hannibal can easily hear the phone ringing on the young secretary's desk. She answers the phone with the usual monotone drone. "Dr. Lecter's off-" Her words are cut off and Hannibal can hear the slap of the nail file hitting the wooden desk. "It is, please hold." The chair she's in squeals as she stands quickly and runs to his door, heels clicking quickly as she's trying to run and not slip. She doesn't knock like she knows she should. Hannibal already knows how urgent the call is and picks it up before she can open the door. When she does, Hannibal is already on the phone, nodding as she makes hand gestures about the call. Hannibal said little, the address familiar to him. He hangs up and stands, grabbing his blazer, he simply walks quickly out of his office. The young woman stared at him with questioning eyes, wanting so desperately to know what was going on.

The driver to the school it about fifteen minutes and only because of the traffic around the school. When he walks into the room, he finds that the other faculty is crowding around Will, calling his name and trying to bring him back. Anger boils up quickly in him at their crowding. The woman named Beverly rushes to him as asks if he's Hannibal. Once he confirms is, he is let in. "I need all of you to step out please." His voice is strong and commanding. Nobody challenges his command or stop to ask what is wrong. Hannibal kneels down next to Will near the couch, carefully laying the shaking man down. He checked him over a few times to confirm that it thankfully is not a seizure. It is just another episode he's having. Hannibal moved in closer, remembering what he had told him about his scent. Moving in closer, Hannibal laid a steady hand on Will's face. "Will. Open your eyes now Will. It is fine. You're safe. It is time to come back." He could hear murmuring outside the door, the handle shifted only slightly then somebody outside the door quickly stopped whom ever tried to open the door. "Time to come back Will." He said again, more forcefully.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Within fifteen minutes the small shaking had gotten worse, Will unable to pull himself from the murder in front of him, he held the gun in his hand and stared at the shaking form of his son. The boy was no more than five but he wasn't his son, no he wasn't his son, that cheating whore of a wife he had said he wasn't his son, this was some boy he didn't know with big blue eyes who WASN'T his son. The b***h lay dead down the hall, he'd had his work with her, it took her longer to die than he thought it would and he could already hear the cops sirens outside. The barrel of the gun was covered in blood and blood had dripped down his fore arms as he stared at the boy before him.

Somewhere inside Will was screaming to get out, begging not to see this, he knew what happened and he didn't want to see it. The anger in Will boiled and he grabbed the boy by the arm. The kid just kept staring at him with those eyes, his damned mothers eyes, he wanted them gone. He needed them gone and so he drug the crying, screaming, boy down stairs and into the kitchen. He first thought a knife would work, a knife had to work, but all the ones left downstairs were to big for the boys little skull. It was an easy fix so Will grabbed a spoon and pushed the boy down on the ground before holding him down by the neck.

Will screamed internally as the spoon went high above his head and then came sailing down only to be stopped. Will felt a hand on him, a soft hand, and then he heard a voice. He knew that voice and soon everything that he had thought was real was fading and Will was able to pull himself back just as the scent reached him. Will took a few deep, gasping, breathes before he reached up and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. He still shook, he shook hard, and he could feel the warm tears rolling down his face. "Oh god… I can't…" Will shuddered again and then got up quickly before running to the trashcan and vomiting.

The murder had been gruesome, completely horrible, the man who committed it had thought his wife was cheating on him and she had been sarcastic. She told him she was and that their son wasn't his and two night later they found her dead. He had shoved knifes into her over and over before using the gun and shooting her, putting the knifes back as she laid there dying, then he had used a spoon to dig out his five year old son's eyes before shooting him in the stomach. Will was only glad he had been removed before he saw the boy die, before he faced that horror, because watching what happened to that woman was bad enough.

Will stood, hands pressed flat on the wall, and just shook as he tried to calm down. His arms were shaking and his head was pounding. He just didn't want to remember what he had seen. "Thank you… Dr. Lecter." Will said weakly.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal was going to try to jolt Will out of it when he suddenly came back and saying he couldn't. Hannibal stood and took a step back to give the man some room. Calmly, he walked over to the fridge that was in the lounge for the faculty and removed a cold water bottle from it. While Will was finishing up his vomiting, he twisted the cap once with a strong grip and held it out for Will to take. As he neared Will to hand off the bottle to the shaking man, he could see tears rolling down his cheeks, leaving their mark. It was either from the vomiting or the fit he had been and what he had seen.

A careful hand set firmly on Will's back as Hannibal moved a bit closer, bottle still in hand. "What did you see Will?" Hannibal's voice is soft but still holds the authority and strong power behind each word. They are strong and they are safe. An anchor to keep Will down at earth, to keep him with everybody else physically and mentally. Hannibal had not yet heard about what had happened. He had been at his office all day long working with other patients and reading through Will's notebook before each patient. To get so invested in a person just after a short consultation it was surprising even to himself, then again Hannibal had never met a person like Will; he never knew they existed. To reach out to a stranger and put themselves in their position, seeing it all through their eyes. It was truly magnificent.

Once Will took the bottle, Hannibal helped Will over to the couch, sitting him back down and sitting next to him. He could see people gathering restlessly outside the door from the small door window. They peered in at Will as if he were a sideshow on display. It irritated Hannibal. For them to gawk at him and quietly whisper outside the door about him. "We have an appointment today Will, would you rather stay here and relax a little or come back to my office with me?" Hannibal offered, keeping his hands in his lap and a respectable distance from the other male. He knew that Will valued his personal space and avoided at all cost to make eye contact with anybody. Hannibal couldn't help but to wonder again how Will managed to ever have sex. The door to the room opened and Hannibal's eyes shot up, cold and hard as he stared at the man in the door way. He was around Will's height, had dark brown hair and dark eyes to matched.

Hannibal decided then that his heart would be better on a plate surrounded by fresh, lightly oiled greens than in his chest. The male's dark eyes looked at Will worried, Hannibal could tell this man was sweet on Will. "Will?" He asked quietly, quickly eying Hannibal as he man continued to stare, irritation and anger rolling off of him. "Are you okay?" He decided to ignore Hannibal's presence and inch closer to his colleague. The other male was close enough for Hannibal to reach over and quickly snap his neck. Just two strong hands on either side of his face and one quick jerk, that's all it took. He could do it. Hannibal watched the male stopped moving, kneeling down and setting his hand on Will's knee. "Do you want me to get you anything?" He had asked Will quietly, the pressure of Hannibal's irritation finally causing the male and slowly slink away from the Lithuanian at Will's side.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will stood by the trashcan for a moment longer, just trying to catch his breath, and carefully took the bottle from Hannibal before shaking his head firmly when asked what he had seen. He didn't think he could say that over again at the moment, not after all the screaming he had heard in his head, and so will let the other lead him over to the couch as he just hung his head and drank his water. He could hear the noise the hall, the murmuring voices, and Will just wanted to run. He felt like a side show attraction at the circus, one of the many freaks stuck in a cage, and it was horrible. He hated being watched like this, like he was some kind of animal to be observed, and he mostly wished that those people would just go away. When Hannibal asked him what he would like to do, if he would like to stay or go, Will just wanted to get up and go.

His words were stopped of course when someone came into the room, actually braving the lions den, and Will smiled at the man. He numbly tried not to jerk away when the other set his hand on his knee and Will sighed. "I am fine… can you just… Can you ask everyone to leave? I am fine and I don't want them wasting their time." Will smiled stiffly, a small blush pulling just below his neck, because he was used to this person being kind to him but he didn't like that hand on his knee. Will awkwardly pat the others hand, saying a quite thank you as the other stood, and then watched as the man left the room and people left from around the door.

"I would much rather leave…" Will stood carefully, a tremble still left in his limbs, and he gripped the bottle a little tighter as he headed for the door. Will opened it to find the hall thankfully empty and started down the hall with his head down. He felt like a dead man walking in a way, a parade float being observed on its way down the street, a marvel to be watched but never to get close too. When Will finally made it out side he glanced back at Hannibal, careful not to meet the man's eyes, and then headed for his car "I will see you at your office Dr. Lecter… Hopefully I will be able to discuss what happened." Will sighed, still clutching the water bottle, and when he found his car he easily slid into the driver seat. His hands still shook a little but he was feeling better and not as nervous.

By the time Will made it to Hannibal's office he was back to normal, no more shaking and his heart had calmed down a lot, Will finished his water bottle and got out of his car so he could head up to Hannibal's office. Will smiled at the woman in the office who was kind enough to act like nothing at all had happened before taking will back into Hannibal's office. Will sat with his head in his hands as he waited a very short time for Hannibal to come in. He could see his own notebook on the others desk and he wanted to get up and see what page the other was on but he decided that would be inappropriate. When Hannibal came in Will looked up at the man before looking back down at the bottom the desk where he had previously been staring.

"A woman and her son were killed today… the husband raped his wife with knives, then a gun, and shot her several times while doing so." Will swallowed thickly as the screams rung in his ear. "He then took his son down stairs and…" Will hung his head taking a few deep breaths and trying very hard to separate himself from that. "God I almost did that…. He dug his own son's eyes out with a spoon." Will rubbed at his face as he remembered the anger.

Mute Black Sheep: The male smiled and nodded at Will, glad to leave with the ever growing presence of Hannibal's cold eyes bearing down on him. They followed the male as he left the room. If he gets too nosy then Hannibal would do something about it. Not now though. Maybe he could even be of some use to him. As the door began to close, Hannibal could hear the male's voice, asking everybody to leave and not stand around. He informed them that Will was better now and to just leave. Hannibal's light, brown eyes caught the reddened heat on Will's neck from the male. Another irritant. Both men stood and Hannibal's hand went out just in the slightest bit. It was there for Will if he chose to use it to catch himself.

Once the smaller male began to walk away, Hannibal let his hand relax at his side, easily following behind him. It was no problem for the refined man to match Will's struggled and stuttering steps with his own long and elegant stride. Their shoes echoed in the empty hall, small squeals from under Will's simple shoes and the clack from Hannibal's polished, dress shoes. He followed the male out of the school and walked behind him still. What kids were still left were all whispering and talking lowly, their eyes following the well known teacher and the refined man that stalked him. He gave one nod to acknowledge Will's glance back at him, not expecting him to make any eye contact, especially after what he had been through. "Yes, Will." Another short nod and they parted ways. Lunch would have to wait it seemed. Will needed to be tended to. To be brought back from his scare and to reassure him.

Hannibal didn't stop anywhere or for anything on the way back to his office. He wouldn't dare getting any take out or fast food. He had personally seen it what it could do to the body many times. Not just externally, but internally as well. Ruined precious organs and turned them rancid. Hannibal thinks about the last time he had harvested anything. It had been about a few weeks. His last victim had lasted quite a while. It would be time for him to restock very soon. The police would be having a field day very soon. Hannibal turned into the parking lot of his practice. He parked the car and stood. Slowly breathing in, he could smell the electricity in the air and the threat of rain, which meant there was a chance for snow tonight. As he walked into the building and slowed at his secretary, she gave him a confused stare. "Could you make coffee for two please?" He asks calmly, removing his coat, holding it over one arm. The young secretary, Hannibal guessed about mid twenties, smiled hopefully at him. He couldn't understand those hopeful eyes she always gave him when he mentioned anything that was meant for more than one.

Hannibal thought that Will would like some hot coffee to help calm, soothe and wake him. If she thought that it would be for her and him, then she surely should pull her nose from those silly romance novels. Hannibal hung his coat on the dark, polished, wooden coat hanger. The other pegs remained vacant as he sat down to his desk, simply waiting for Will to come. Though his patience is interrupted when the young woman poked her head into the office. "Dr. Lecter? I'm sorry, but there's somebody on the line that wishes to speak with you." Her voice is soft yet high. It matches her soft, round face and soft, feminine features. Hannibal nods once and picks up the phone. A familiar voice comes over the phone. Hannibal grits his teeth. "Let me call you right back." Hanging up the phone, he stands back up and walked out of his office. The woman isn't at her desk, probably making the coffee.

Hannibal didn't go to the front of the practice but to the back instead for some more privacy.

The woman pokes her head out of the small room she's in and hurries to the desk, she smiles at Will and lets him into Hannibal's office before going back to making the coffee. The conversation isn't long and it leaves Hannibal with a few more ideas for dinner. He really isn't surprised to see Will sitting in the chair opposite of his desk, looking slightly guilty and nervous. Hannibal goes to sit in his desk chair, the two doctor and patient chairs open and lonely. Will begins right away and Hannibal is left to listen about the events that set Will off this time. He has a very easy trigger, a death of a child can rattle almost anybody and Will is already easily susceptible. When Will finally gives in and tells him that the child's eyes were dug out with a spoon, Hannibal is actually surprised that Will didn't take the child's place. "Will," Hannibal begins to get Will's attention. "You didn't do it." He had caught what Will had slipped. 'I almost did...' "Will, if you cannot separate yourself from the killer then we are going to have to work harder on this."

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will jerks his head when Hannibal speaks, telling him that he didn't do it, and he wants' to say that he knows he didn't but at the same time he just can't form the words. He had slipped, hadn't he? Will hung his head, giving it a rough shake, before sighing and leaning back in the chair to be more comfortable. "I know… I just… I have been so long in this that it is hard to separate myself from it. The other therapists I have seen told me to become more involved, they told me if I looked harder into these incidents I might be able to… I don't know, figure out why I connected with that person." Will know why, it's not hard to guess, his father had threatened him plenty of times with it, had hurt him plenty of time, Will knew exactly why he fell so easily into this one.

That young boy lived a sad and scary life, one filled with abuse and pain, and Will had lived that life when he was that boys age. Thankfully his father had never hurt him more than a few bruises or cuts because his mother was there but this boy didn't have his mother when his father lost it. Will-… no the boy's father had made sure of that. "It wasn't me." He say's more to himself as he stares off at the wall, remembering his dream from this weekend, and he shifts in his seat before looking at Hannibal's chin, avoiding eye contact completely. "I had a nightmare after I went home this weekend… I have them often as you know but something was… different. Something changed in the dream but I don't know what. There was something knew there." Will tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair, his eyes searching around the room, and glancing over the statutes and many books.

"I haven't figured out what's different yet…. I also got a call from a man named Jack Crawford." Will pinched at the bridge of his nose. "I get many calls from him, all the time, asking me to consult on a case. He say's my knowledge can help… he was making sure I was okay but I have a feeling it won't be long until he asks me to help again." Will didn't want to help but at the same time… he had this urge to say yes. This was the first and only time he had ever had the urge to accept the offer the help Jack and it made him nervous.

 Mute Black Sheep: A small tilt of Hannibal's head as Will confessed that it was hard for him not to. Just hearing that suggestion had Hannibal internally groaning and praising Will's other weak minded therapists. It would be easier to tame Will and train him when the man is ready for it. As Will's eyes land on Hannibal's chin, he reaches over to move the coffee mug closer to Will so he could drink the warm liquid. "Drink Will." He says just in case the man decides to ignore the liquid. As Will spoke, Hannibal began to quickly write in his note book, taking down what Will spoke of. He nearly snapped his pen in half just by hearing that name. Jack Crawford. He knew of the man well enough.

They have spoken on some occasions. Jack was once interested in one of Hannibal's patients before. He had advised Jack to stay away from her and she ended up dead. Hannibal remembered her well. The pretty shade of her blonde hair, her pale skin and how it flushed under his strong hand. She sought him for only a few minor things. Miriam Lass if he remembers correctly. Jack blames himself for her death. Hannibal agrees. If he had never asked her to join his team, Hannibal would have never had to kill her for getting too close. It was all Jack's fault. He might as well have been the one smothering her. "Yes, Jack Crawford. I've met him before." Hannibal slowly rises to his feet. "If you do not mind Will, I would like to tell you of a story, or passage if you will, that I remember from my youth." Hannibal leans against his desk.

"Close your eyes Will." Once he does, Hannibal begins. "In the beginning, people had nothing. Their bodies ached, and their hearts held nothing but hatred. They fought endlessly, but death never came. They despaired, stuck in the eternal quagmire." Hannibal begins, his voice slow and smooth as he walks around Will in the chair, his hands coming to rest on the back of the chair. He leaned down and slowly slides his left hand forward, cupping the back of Will's hand and lifting it as he speaks again. "A man offered a serpent to the sun and prayed for salvation." He slides his right hand forward cupping the back of Will's right and lifting it so both hands were at the same height level, Will's palms up and open. "A woman offered a reed to the sun and asked for joy. Feeling pity for the sadness that had over run the earth, God was born from those two people." Hannibal let's Will's hands down onto the arms rests of the chair and continues his slow walk.

"God made time and divided it into day and night. God outlined the road to salvation and gave people joy. And God took endless time away from the people. God created beings to lead people in obedience to Her. The red God, Aušrinė, the yellow God, Mėnuo, many Gods and angels. Finally God set out to create Paradise, where people would be happy just by being there. But then God's strength ran out, and she collapsed. All the world's people grieved this unfortunate event, yet God breathed Her last. She returned to the dust, promising to come again. So God hasn't been lost. We must offer our prayers and not forget our faith. We wait in hope for the day when the Path to Paradise will be opened." Hannibal is standing behind Will again when he finished with the passage.

"You can help as many people as you'd like Will with your gift. You can keep fighting to continue on and in time you will break under their desires, under their pleas and prayers. [i]If[/i] you are lucky, you will return." It is clear why Hannibal told Will that story, what it meant and how it related to Will. "He is right. Your knowledge can help but it can also break you. The more you get lost in your head Will, the more you will slip." Hannibal warns him about Jack's pleas for help on some cases. "I would not advise it right now Will. Maybe when you have a better grip on things. Even then, it is a risk." He is torn at having Will on Jack's team. It could go against him but it could also work so much in his favor.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will looks up at Hannibal as he speaks, sees the tension in him, and then Hannibal is wanting to tell him a story. Will is dubious at first, who would not be, but then he closes his eyes and he listens. He has never heard this passage before and he focuses on the words. At first he does not understand why Hannibal is telling him this, the words seeming so strange, and then Hannibal's hands are sliding down on his arms. Will feels his heart jump at the touch and then he sucks in a breath and Hannibal is gripping his hands and Will is finding it hard to focus with the other so close. Human contact is not a plus for him, it's hard, he can almost feel the other through his skin. Will took a deep breath, listening to the story, and then Hannibal was stepping away and Will could breathe again.

Will can hear Hannibal like he is all around him, like the words are coming from every corner of the room, and it makes him almost dizzy as the story continues. He can see it like a mirage behind his eyes, an old civilization coming into a being and then Will is the one collapsing. He get the point that Hannibal is making, he understands what the other is trying to tell him, and when the story finishes Will opens his eyes and stares at the desk. Hannibal continues his warning and Will looks up at him, so very close to meeting his eyes, and then he looks away as if the temptation was too great for him to go through with. Will sits back, staring at a spot on the far wall, and he bites at his bottom lip.

"I haven't ever thought about saying yes before, I thought… I was worried with it but for some reason I want to these days. I have never thought about it but I feel like it's time I say yes. I need to help in some way because I know how killers think and if I help him then maybe… maybe I can keep others from dying? I don't know. It's all hard because I know I can lose myself to this, just television can get me lost in my head, I don't want to but sometimes I feel like I don't have a choice. I feel like I must atone for the things I haven't done." Will sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair.

"I won't though. Not now. I know I can't do it right now so I will still say no and if he pushes… I will shut him down." Will worried his bottom lip even more and then he grabbed the coffee and sipped at it. The rest of the session was the general thing with Hannibal trying to get Will in and out of the state where he loses himself. They still had thirty minutes left when Will drifted off in the middle of Hannibal reading something from one of the note books. Will is surprised by the state of his dream, the way it's so solid, and how it's just him standing in the woods. Will looks around in the dream as that feeling crawls up his back like he is missing something, like something new is there that he needs to see, then he catches brow out of the corner of his eye and he chases it. Will chases and chases even as the mud turns to meat and his feet sink in blood. The nightmare gets worse and Will wants to scream but then he sees it.

It's a stag, standing tall and proud, it's antlers reach high branches and it stands and stares at Will. The stag seems to posses him as it stares and Will feels not threat from it, no incessant danger, and then the stag shifts and suddenly Will feels himself impaled by the long bone protrusions. Will gasps awake in surprise and looks around for a moment before realizing where he is and feeling guilty.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal gave only one node in response to Will's handling of Jack's hounding. The man is really a pain. Hannibal would have gotten rid of him long ago if it weren't for Lass. As the session goes on, Hannibal tries a few more things with Will, glad that he had pulled through at school when he called him back. The man still looked so shaken up by it. Two mugs sit empty on the polished desk as Hannibal mentions a few entries from Will's notebook about the time he had lost while reliving those horrors. Will is unusually quiet as Hannibal reads through one entry, being very careful about what words he says, keeping is vague. Hannibal stops reading and lowers to note book to find Will leaning back in the chair, his eyes closed and his chest steadily rising and falling.

He's asleep. Slowly closing the notebook, Hannibal sets it on his desk before moving closer to the sleeping man. It is nice to get this close to him without him shrinking away. Behind those closed eyes, Hannibal could see his eyes shift back and forth, entering his REM sleep. Hannibal touched the ends of those dark curls, marveling how beautiful they would look with blood caked into them. Will sweaty and bloody after a hunt. Knife in hand and a fresh heart in his other. He could see it so perfectly. Will would stare at him as he lifts the heart and bites right into it. Blood running down his chin, some dropping off and onto the ground, others rolling down his neck to soak into his shirt. Will would be a beautiful hunter and an equally strong man. A shudder rips through Hannibal as he stares down at Will. Fingers slip from the curls to brush down Will's neck to the hem of his shirt. His skin is warm. A little too warm. Could be a fever or from the dream.

His hand moves from Will's neck to a further up position. Fingers pressed to the side of the neck to feel his heart beat. Strong and quick. Must be some dream. Just as Hannibal pulls his hand away and sits back down to write into his notebook, Will is finally woken up from his sleep with a rather startling gasp. Hannibal looked up at him and arched his brow just slightly. "Another nightmare Will?" He keeps his voice low as he speaks to him. Loud enough to get and hold his attention but not too loud that it would startle him. Hannibal isn't upset about him falling asleep. He got to enjoy something rare. Why should he complain about that? "Care to tell me your dream?" Hannibal slowly tilts his head just slightly, hardly even noticeable.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will finds it hard to focus on Hannibal as he remembers the dream and also feels the guilt rising. When the other speaks thought he does not seem angry and in a way Will figures that this would be a good thing. Will sat in his chair, his tongue running along his bottom lip for a moment, and then he straightened. "I dreamt of a stag." It comes out quieter than Will meant and yet at the same time the words are deafening. Will feels like he shouldn’t mention the stag to Hannibal, to anyone, and he carefully chooses his next words. He carefully constructs a lie filled with truth. "It was the first time I dreamt of it… it was strange. Yet… somehow…" Will trails of and looks to the time, trying to find a scapegoat so he does not have to continue, and then he is standing.

"I need to go Dr. Lecter. My sister and I are going to dinner and our time is up." Will gives the man a tight smile and then all but flees, barely stopping to make another appointment with the secretary, and he doesn't look back. He doesn’t want to tell Hannibal about the stag, he wants to keep this to himself, and Will feels like that's what the stag want. Hannibal can't know, not yet, but he should at some point. Will drives back home and him and his sister have dinner with a few of her friends that live in the town. No one mentions the incident at the school, Will is told the next day not to come back into work, and his things are dropped off by Beverly.

He's told he is too "unstable" to work around the children, that he could hurt them, and that when he is better he can come back. Will laughs because he knows it isn't true, that his job will be gone in not time, and like a hawk Jack swoops in. The man tells him he has a job he could use, that he would pay him to consult, and that the figures are more than what Will used to make. Will can't say no, even when his sister does, and he isn't even given a week before he is on a case. He doesn’t tell Hannibal, he feels guilty, and he dreams of the stage almost every night. By the next appointment Will looks run down, dark circles under his eyes, and when he enters the office he can do nothing but shift back and forth on his feet. He knows Hannibal has seen his face on the news, has heard what he has done, and he feel ridiculously guilty for it. The stag doesn’t help, sitting in the back of his mind, it's grown more violent in a way, but in almost a good way, and when ever Will think about Hannibal he feels the stags joy which only brings him more guilt.

"Dr.Lecter" He says almost silently, his hands pulling nervously at the strap of his bag. He has brought his notebooks with him, one for work and the other filled with new dreams, he know Hannibal will want to look at them. It makes him nervous, makes the stag excited, and drives him to step a bit further into the lion's den. He cannot understand the guilt he feels for doing what he had to but he feels it's all because Hannibal had told him not to.

Mute Black Sheep: From his desk, Hannibal can hear Will clear, crystal clear and he can tell that his words have weight, that they mean so much more to him then he's letting on, possibly much more than he understands. This stag Will mentions is very interesting, it is important to him. Leaning forward slightly, Hannibal watches Will's eyes dart from his general direction to the clock on the side wall. He knows Will is looking to get out of telling him about his dream. A mild irritant, nothing more. "It is." Hannibal agrees with a curt nod and rises to his feet, buttoning up his blazer. Just as he goes to step out from behind his desk, Will is gone. It leave Hannibal standing alone and even more irritated than he was before. Will was going to take time. He knew this, he kept telling himself this. It was hard to accepted. He wanted the man wrapped around his finger, beckoning and breaking to his ever call, command and to his touch and eyes.

Hannibal doesn't see Will for a few weeks, his secretary tells him that he has not made any appointments. At the end of the second week, Will shows up unexpectedly. Hannibal has already gone through Will's notebook, no mention of a stag anywhere in there. Hannibal is sitting at a table near a window, drawing slowly. Tortured eyes stare up at him, the lines soft and refined. He could see blue in his head shining through those pained eyes. The picture is not complete, he has been focusing on those eyes, glasses faintly drawn around them. The door to his office opens and those tortured eyes are here in person. Tired, worn and guilty, so very guilty. Hannibal shifts the paper he's been working on under a few other drawings. One of a stag, what he pictures is the beast from Will's dreams.

"Will." His voice is not soft like before. He has seen his face on the news, the talk of the 'prodigy' that can get into a killer's head. When Hannibal first hear Will's name spoken over the television, he almost tore a hole in the paper he had been drawing on. "It's been a while. Then again, I am sure Jack keeps you busy." His tone is cold and hard. "Sit." He motions with his hand to the vacant chair. It isn't the one by his desk that he motions to, but the two that sit in front of each other. Hannibal takes up one of them, a leg slowly crosses over the other. The room with thick with tension and Hannibal can see by the way Will is standing that he is filled with guilt. "I thought you wanted to get things under control." Hannibal comments, unable to keep the snarky tone from his voice. He takes a deep breath through his nose to calm himself before continuing. There is no need for him to get hostile with Will.

"You had told me that you loved your job Will. Were you forced to give it up?" Hannibal's voice is back to that calm and collected tone he always uses. As Hannibal looks over Will's tired and worn face, he cannot help but to think about the God that gave her life to the begging people, to their selfish desires. He won't be able to keep getting into the minds of killers like this. It will eventually be the end of him. Hannibal reached up to pinch briefly at the bridge of his nose. It was frustrating to have Jack and his team thrown into the mix of all of this. He wanted to lay into Will right now. He was going to keep pushing himself further deeper. "Have you lost any time while on the field?" Hannibal opts out on making him feel anymore guilty than he already is. "If you plan on staying with Jack and his team Will, then I need you to come to me more so I can help you." It is a simple chide, nothing to make the man feel worse.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will doesn’t want to look at Hannibal, even as he hears the other move across the room, and he isn't surprised when he hears that slightly biting tone. He feels like a scolded dog, like he had torn up a paper or something, and he shifts his posture. He doesn’t know why he feels so guilty, he shouldn’t, but in a way he guesses it's because he respects Hannibal. Will betrayed that respect in some way when he started working with Jack and he knows this an it make him feel all the more guilty. Will looks at the chair that he is motioned to and walks over, gripping the strap of his bag, but he doesn’t sit. He feels like he shouldn’t, like he doesn't deserve it, but as Hannibal continues to talk Will sit's. He stares at the ground, then runs his hands over his face, and he feels the burn in the back of his throat.

"I… They uh… Fired me." Will sounds confused at his own statement but at the same time he also sounds frustrated. "They said I was a danger to the children, unstable, they didn't trust me to teach them anymore." The hurt is obvious, and deep, and Will sit's back in his seat. "I looked for other options… But no one will hire me because I am 'unstable'. Alana knows I am not quite there… I am still stable at this moment. She tried to argue with them but no one wants to trust me around the kids." Will laughs slightly bitterly and grips at his leg as he leans back "I haven't… I haven't lost any time in the past two weeks. I thought it would get worse when I started working with Jack but for some reason… I don’t  know. I got better but at the same time I am worse. There are nightmares, of course, but not… like before." Will wants to stop there but he can't lie.

"Sometimes their worse… or I can't sleep. I found more strays… I went from three and now I have eight." Will shakes his head slightly. "I wanted to apologize in a way… for having gone with Jack. I didn't know what to do. The children cried for an hour when I told them I had to go." Will takes in a small breath and then lets out a much deeper one. The whole situation had been rather devastating for Will because he had been teach those kids for so long it seemed and they all loved him but now… now he was barred from even going near them. "I had a nightmare that day… That I was that man who killed his son? The last one… the one that got me fired. I had killed all of the children in my class because… I felt…like they weren't mine. Their bodies smiled up at me." Will shuddered at the memory of that dream and he also remembered the stag, standing in the door way and watching, it had been terrifyingly glorious.

"I am on a new case though… I don't focus on what happened. So far six girls have gone missing… one was found dead in her home, in her bed."

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal sits back in his chair, light brown eyes watching Will very closely as he talks about being fired and how they think he is 'unstable' to be around and teach the children. In the notebook Will had given him, he often said how happy he was about teaching, how much he loved it and how much it meant to him. It was his life, it was the thing keeping from him slipping completely. That was gone now and he was in a job where he was forced to look through the eyes of killers and relive each death. He nodded again, understanding when Will said it's gotten better and yet, it hasn't. There is fear behind Will's words as he starts to talk about his nightmares and the ever growing presence of the stag.

"You have eight dogs now?" Hannibal couldn't help but to ask. From what Hannibal was thinking, he saw that Will needed more things to keep him grounded, to keep himself there. Three dogs weren't cutting it. Either that, or he felt he needed them in place of the children he taught before. He needed to connect with something pure to weight out all the darkness that had begun to fill his life. "To an extent, I understand Will." Hannibal opened his note book to jot down a few things. He slowed his hand when Will mentioned his dream of killing the children because he felt that they weren't his in his dream. "It is the reason that you got fired and what is keeping you from what you love. Even in death, they will remain pure. Children grow up and become soiled from the world Will."

Hannibal looked back up to Will from his notebook. "Next time you go in to talk with Jack, I would like to come so I could talk with him as well." He would need to keep a close eye on Will to make sure he could pull him back if he got too deep. "Though Jack Crawford and I have had some disagreements in the past, I am sure he will agree to my helping you."

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will looks up at Hannibal's reply to the dream and he nods slowly because it makes sense, it's how he always felt about children, but then again people like him always thought about children that way. It was the empathy. Will looks back down at his hands and chuckles at Hannibals request before looking up at the other "He suggested that I start seeing you…. Off the record. Not as a patient but to have… conversations." His voice seems snarky, almost bitter, but in a humorous way. He finds the idea funny, because he know what Jack is really suggesting, and Will can't help but laugh at a good joke… even when he is the bud of it. Will runs a hand through his hair and reaches into his bag, pulling out his note book, and then he carefully hands it over to Hannibal.

"I just filled this one…" Will doesn't mention the stag, he hasn't since that first time, and in his writing he left that detail out. It was easy enough, barely even a task, but he felt like a cheat for it. Hannibal needed to know about the stage but the stag said that Will wasn't ready for him to know yet. Or well it didn't say, it showed, and Will felt it. Hannibal needed to know about what the stag really was but not yet, not when Will didn't even know yet, so instead Will sits back in his seat and stares off into the distance. "I meet with Jack tomorrow to go over this case… You can come with me then." Will rubs just beneath his mouth, his eyes distant, and after a moment he looks down into his bag and pulls out another folder. He looks through it for a second, it's a check list, and when he is done he stands up and puts the folder back in his bag.

Will was starting to pace when his phone rang. Will pulled it out of his pocket and stared down at the number with trepidation and then he answered it. "Hello Jack." Will went silent and then he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose "I'll be there soon."Will doesn’t say where he is, he doesn’t feel that he needs to, and he tried not to cringe at Jacks grating voice. Will hangs up the phone and slides it back in his pocket before grabbing his bag. "Looks like I'll be going in tonight… they found another girl." Will wonders if Hannibal will come, or if he will wait until tomorrow, because Will felt like he needed a crutch at the moment, in case he fell, but at the same time he wasn't sure how Jack would react to Will and Hannibal showing up together.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal slowly tilts his head in the slightest at Jack's suggestion. "For once, I would agree with him. It will be easier to simply have conversations with somebody rather than a therapist." It really isn't a bad suggestion. It would be a much more comfortable situation for Will and it wouldn't require the professionalism that these appointments had. Hannibal leaned over to take the notebook from Will, setting it in his lap with his own on top of it. "So soon? It has only been about three weeks." He had actually expected it to take longer, but with what Will has been through recently, it really shouldn't be any surprise. Hannibal wordlessly nods once and sits back to observe Will.

 

He is much more on edge before. There is so much bothering. Hannibal can hardly make out the guilt in his eyes hidden under the stress he's been going through. "I will go with you. It is best that I speak with Jack now." Hannibal stood, going to his desk to put the note books away into his desk. Hannibal pulls on his coat and follows Will out. It has been raining on and off all day and he has no further appointments until much later. It was time to cleanse the bad blood between himself and Jack. If they were both going to be whispering into Will's ear then they needed to settle their own problems like adults. "Tell me about this case." Hannibal is fixing the cuffs on his coat while he walks next to Will through the building.

"You had said that six girls have gone missing and you found a seventh last night, in her bed. Tell me, do they have similarities? Something that all seven have had in common with each other?" He gets the cuffs just right and lowers his hands to his side. Hannibal really doesn't care what Jack thinks if they show up at the scene together. "I will follow you." He said once they reached the parking lot. Hannibal stays behind Will through the trip, keeping up with him. When they park, it is on a dirt road and Jack is at the entrance, waiting for Will. Hannibal can see a look of confusion at the other car then it is gone the moment Hannibal steps out of his car. "Dr. Lecter." Jack says as he approaches the man, hand extended. Out of respect, Hannibal shakes Jack's hand, giving a professional smile. "Jack." He nods once.

"It's been a while." Jack releases Hannibal's hand, finally. "It has." Hannibal agrees. "I didn't mean to pry when I suggested that Will sees you as more of an outside source rather than a therapist." Hannibal knows that Jack mean to pry in every which way possible. If he could, he'd have a tracker implanted in Will's neck. "I understand Jack." Hannibal waits until Will is out of ear shot before speaking with him about what they both have been waiting to say. "I hope we both can move on from what happened in the past Jack." Jack Crawford lets out a long breath and a small laugh. "I was about the say the same. I need you on this case as well Dr. Lecter. Well not on just this case. Let me rephrase that, I need you here for Will. If he's involved, then so are you. He's let me in that you've been the only one to pull him from that.... state." Jack smiles up at Hannibal when he nods his head.

"I will be here for Will then. But Jack, if I advise something, then this time I ask that you respect my decision." Jack's smile fades quickly. "I understand Dr. Lecter." They both turn and begin walking up the path, Will's back up ahead of them on the trail. There were a few people hanging around the scene. Hannibal already knew what they would be investigating. He bit back a smile. He had learned from the news that a very gifted Will Graham was working on the FBI to catch the Minnesota Shrike. He had put this piece of art together for Will so he could see what it was that the Minnesota Shrike was doing. She also provided Hannibal with a lovely dinner.

Jack hung back while Hannibal walked forward towards Will. "What do you see Will?" Hannibal stood next to Will, looking over his own work of art. "Is it the Shrike?" Jack asked as he stepped up closer to the pair, irritating Hannibal.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will nodded when Hannibal said he would be coming with and then went on to explain the case. "Seven girls, all matching the same description. Same age, height, weight. Most of them picked up from colleges around the states. The one last night was the only body found… She was strangled in her bed but he didn't… keep her." Will sounded confused by this and then he carefully parted from Hannibal to drive to the crime scene. Will sighed as he drove and when he spotted Jack on the dirt road he stopped, pulling out a pill bottle, and popped an aspirin into his mouth. He was sure this was going to lead to a head ache. Will got out of his car and was pleasantly surprised to see that Hannibal was a rather distracting subject for Jack.

Will trudged up the path, his feet heavy, and watched as everyone lingered a few feet away and waited for him to do what he did. Will looked at the body and almost instantly he knew something was wrong. This wasn't right, this wasn't how the shrike killed, he didn't LEAVE things. He would display a body like this, that isn't what will had felt, this man wasn't about display and he wasn't about disgracing these girls either. Will crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the cut on the girls torso, and he tilted his head to the side.

Will jumped slightly when Hannibal came up beside him, his mind lost in the kill, and then he heard Jack. "No… no this isn't him. This isn't right this is… This is something else. The shrike he doesn't just KILL, he doesn’t set his kills on display, and he wouldn’t just… leave this girl here. He…" Will trails off. "He respects them too much for that. This girl, this kill, there was no respect. This was cruel and long. This was… this was art to this killer. The Shrike doesn't make art, or leave breadcrumbs he-…." Will stops. "He cares for the girls he kills… he respects them like they are taking the place of something… someone else." Will took a deep breath, staring at the girl on the antlers, and he had to rub his hand over his eyes to pull himself back.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal held back a smile as Will talks about the difference between the Minnesota Shrike and his own handy work. Good, he saw it all, he saw everything the Shrike did. It would clear up any confusion Will might have had about the Shrike. It was a favor that Hannibal had done for him. Made his life a little easier, given him all the answers he needed. "You said they are taking the place of someone else, who do you think he could be replacing?" Jack asks, stepping forward, minding the scene that separated him and Will. Hannibal stood behind Will, looking over his shoulder at the work in front of them.

Eyes traveled up from the work to Jack across from them. "Do you think you can get into this killer's head?" Hannibal asked quietly, watching Jack as he spoke to Will. The man was too busy looking at the body to pay any attention to them. "What do you think this killer is doing by this?" Hannibal asks now, looking back to the girl in front of her. Chest cut open, lungs missing and various flesh and muscle torn off from the crows that had settled on her before she was found. Jack leans in to look at the large, gaping hole in her chest. He lips his lips to moisten them from the cold, dry air. "She wasn't dead when her lungs were cut out." Jack doesn't look at Will and the devil over his shoulder.

Hannibal looks from Jack to Will as the man rounds the body to stand near Will. Hannibal moves from Will to circle the body like he had done light night when the girl sat sniveling as he circled her. It's the thrill of the hunt. The chase if they put any up and the fight. It takes him back every time; he remembers how those men begged for their lives. Hannibal took so much joy in killing them. Making them suffer. One man he had kept alive while he disemboweled him. It was glorious. "Like always, there's no evidence, no trace of anything." Beverly Katz says after taking a closer look at the body. Hannibal is brought back from his trip down memory lane.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will stared at the body before him, hearing Hannibal's words at his shoulder, and as he stared at the body he knew he could get inside the killers head. Both Shrike and this one "This wasn't the Shrike… the shrike he.. he replaces them… for his daughter." Will swallows thickly. "Were looking for a girl, their height, weight, eye color. Probably around their age, and only child, about to leave home. The shrike… He has compassion for these girls this killer… he thought this woman was a pig." Will took a deep breath and stepped back. "Whoever did this, they were smart. And intelligent Psychopath. They left this here as a clue to show us, no, me all that the Shrike was doing. This was practically gift wrapped." Will took a deep breath and stepped back from the body. "That's all we'll get from this… who ever this copy cat is, we'll never catch him. He will probably never kill like this again." Will turned on his heal and headed away from the crime scene.

Why, why would a killer do this? Why would he show Will a way to get into the Shrikes head? What was the possible angle that would be given to them. Will didn't know and at the moment his head was aching to bad to care. Will headed for his car, not bothering to look back, and once there he slid into the seat. He needed some sleep while Jack searched for all the places the Shrike could have worked at that would have ended up with him leaving a metal shard on his last victim. Will waved to Hannibal, bidding him a slight farewell, as he got in his car and headed to his hotel room. He didn't even eat before he fell asleep and was graced with a nightmare.

Will was woken the next morning by a banging on his door, his head ringing slightly, and he stumbled to the door after the second knock, opening it wearing only his boxers and a T-shirt, and he was surprised to see a certain someone on the other side. Will bit back whatever blush threatened him as he looked at Hannibal, the man looking back, and he caught the man's eyes for the briefest of seconds before he stepped aside to let Hannibal inside.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal couldn't help but to look impressed. He was very impressed. Despite advising Will not to take this job, he did enjoy watching him hit every single nail on the head in the first shot. Hannibal looked over Jack and they exchanged looks. Jack's expression said 'I told you so.' Of course his would. Hannibal narrowed his eyes at Jack's retreating back. He made his way down the path, taking one last look at his hand work. As he made it to his car, Will was already heading off, getting a wave from him. Hannibal nods his head once in return and gets into his own car, driving back to his practice. He had more time left, another hour or so left before his next appointment. He brought himself lunch to eat in his office. While eating, he reads through the notebook that Hannibal had given Will to write in. All the pages are filled up and he begins his reading.

There is no mention of the stag anywhere in his notebook. He had mentioned it once and that was it and it was in person, before Will had gotten fired. It had seemed to important at the time and now, there was no trace of it. Will's dreams had changed since his first notebook. They are more detailed, more tortured and tired. It has been really weighing down on Will. After he finishes his lunch, Jack calls Hannibal to let him know that he wants him to go with Will to look into a lead. A construction site where the metal shaving had matched up to. Jack said he has some other business that he has to attend to and cannot go alone. Hannibal gladly accepts his offer.

He feels it. This is it. Will has everything laying out in front of him, the puzzle is just about done. He only needs one piece left amongst thousands of mismatched pieces. A name. Will has this man, everything he has to know about him, everything that would prove his guilt. It would only be a matter of time before he finds his name in the employee files. That's all it's going to take. Hannibal smiles as he reads the notebook. Such a truly, interesting man. He is going to be a lot of fun, Hannibal can already tell. After his appointment, Hannibal heads home. While there, he cooks tomorrows breakfast and put it away in ceramic bowls, putting the lids on top and setting them in the fridge. There was enough lungs left over from that girl.

In the morning, Hannibal heads over to the hotel Will is staying at. Jack has already given Hannibal Will's room number. Knocking on the door, he waits until Will opens the door. "Good morning Will. May I come in?" He asks, a strap over his shoulder, the plain, black bag hanging at his side. He notices Will's attire, of course he woke him and he looks delicious in such little clothing. Hannibal smiles at the quick eye contact and walks in when Will steps aside. "I brought breakfast. You'll need your strength." Hannibal sits down at the small table in the room. He pulled out the two containers, setting them on the table along with the thermos of coffee. As Will fetches some plates, forks and cups that the hotel has around, he uncaps the thermos. "Eggs and sausages. I don't put anything into my body that I haven't personally prepared." He opens one of the containers, setting it in front of Will while he opens his own. "Jack will not be joining us today. He has a meeting that he must attend. We will be looking into the construction site that they have narrowed it down to."

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is a bit surprised when Hannibal mentions food but he motions the other to come in. Will decides not to worry about what he is dressed in, sure that it isn't a problem for Hannibal, and he starts looking around for the plates and such in the hotel room. Will comes back to the table and sets the things down in front of Hannibal before taking his seat, not even noticing their legs brush together thanks to the closeness of the small table. Will listens quietly to Hannibal as he speaks and he sighs, nodding his head. "That's probably for the best. I think I put Jack on edge at times." Will smiles a little at that, obviously not upset about the fact, and he takes a bit of his food. He makes a small humming noise in appreciation and chuckles.

"Pardon me if I don't your same reservations Dr. Lecter." Will chuckles slightly. Will sips at his coffee, enjoying the silence, and he stares out the window. "Would you do it Dr. Lecter?...I mean.. What the Shrike does. If you were faced with that kind of confliction? Would you kill innocent people to protect what you love from yourself?" Will sips at the coffee again "Never mind." Will sighs slightly. When the food is finished Will quickly escapes into the bathroom, glad he had showered the night before, and when he comes out he nods and follows Hannibal out to the car. It isn't a long drive for them and when they get to the construction site Will follows Hannibal into the building. The woman there seems nervous, and rude, and she doesn’t want to help them.

She's defensive and she put's will on edge. Every question is met with some kind of retort instead of yes or no and when she starts chatting on the phone Will decides to tone her out completely. He doesn’t realize when she starts speaking to him and Hannibal again, his eyes scanning over a paper, when he finds the name. "Jacob Hobbs… do you know if he has a daughter? About up to my shoulder, plain but pretty, auburn hair?" Another retort and Will sighs "Right… well do you have his address?" The woman rolls her eyes and turns to get it, after answering Hannibal's questions, and then they are moving the files out to the car.

Hannibal tips a whole mess of papers over onto the ground, Will stifles a laugh, and then they are leaving and heading to collect Jacob Hobbs. When they get there Will realizes it's quite, too quite, and that’s when the front door opens and he hears the screaming. Will instantly draws his gun, his heart racing, and then there she is. She's bleeding all over his hands and arms and he knows it's to late but he keeps trying to stop the blood. He knows it's too late already but he keeps trying and then she's gone and he knows Jacob Hobbs daughter is in the house and he can't let him hurt her so he draws his gun again even though he can feel shock setting in.

His limbs are shaking but his gun is steady and then he sees him, holding her with a knife to her throat, and Will is scared for her. Jacob pulls the knife but doesn’t get as deep of a gash as he did on his wife and then Will is shoot him. Not once, not twice, he releasing the whole magazine into Jacob Hobbs body and he shoots him again when he's leaning against the cabinet just before he wants him to stay down. Will all but drops the gun as he runs over to the wounded girl but his hands are shaking and when he looks at Hobbs the man just keeps saying "See?" like Will is supposed to know something significant. Will can't breathe, and the girl can't either, and he feels her life slipping through his fingers. His whole body is shaking and jerking and then just like that Hannibal is there, clamping down on the wound, and the girl can breathe again.

Will shakes as he looks up at him, splattered in blood spray, and Will is just thankful it doesn’t take the paramedics long to get there.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal chews slowly as Will asks him if he would kill to protect somebody he loves from themselves. That answer is simple. Yes. Of course he'd never answer it, ever. But the thought is nice. They spend some time talking with each other and once Will is dressed, they're both heading out. The place is small, there are boxes piled up on one another and file cabinets filled to the brim with files. Will and the woman talk for a bit, Hannibal asking a few questions here and there. As they start packing the boxes into the trunk, Hannibal carries one out, some files on top sitting nicely. He goes to hand the box to her, purposely tilting the box too far. The files slide off the top of the box over onto her and onto the muddy ground. She scoffs and glares at Hannibal. He catches Will's attempt at hiding a laugh and his smile. Hannibal smiles back at him. He goes back in to grab one final box. Easily picking up a tissue, he lifts the phone with it and presses the buttons with his knuckle.

He gets a young woman over the phone, she hands it off to Garret Jacob Hobbs. A few words are mentioned between them, nothing much. "They know." Hannibal ends the call then grabs the last box, taking it out to the car. The ride of their home is quite and filled with tension, all of it coming off of Will. As they pull up, the whole place doesn't feel right. There's something there. The front door flies open and a woman comes out, hands bloody as she grasps at her throat. Hannibal remains calm as Will rushes out, gun drawn. He tries to save her, but there is very little that can be done for her. Leaving the car, Hannibal calmly walks past her and into the house. Just before he reaches the kitchen, he hears a whole round of shots go off. As he come into the kitchen, Garret Jacob Hobbs dies and Will is bent over the young women who's bleeding from the side of her neck. Hannibal can hear Will repeating no, no, no over and over until he comes over. Kneeling, he places his hand firmly over the wound on her neck and lifts her head. She's able to breathe easier now. Will is covered in blood. Splatter over his face and shirt and his hands are drenched in it.

Hannibal takes a moment to look over to the man and take him in as he is. When the paramedics come, Hannibal lets them take over, taking Will by his upper arm to lead him out of the way. "Let's get you clean up before going to the hospital." Hannibal grabs a kitchen towel to wipe his hands off on. Leading the shaking man out, Hannibal drives them back to the hotel Will is staying at. He can tell that Will is still shaken up but is better when he leads him into the hotel room. "Go take a shower." Hannibal nods towards the bathroom. The knobs to the shower squeak on and he can hear the shower curtain close. He's alone now, with the memory of Will covered in blood and him scrubbing it off in the shower right now. Hannibal leans against the closed bathroom door, listening to him in the bathroom. His right hand moves down to his growing erection, palming it through his pants. Undoing the button and zipper, Hannibal frees himself to start stroking with his ear pressed against the door. Light brown eyes slide close as he thinks about Will completely covered in blood, a twisted smile on his face and a body at his feet.

Hannibal's breath catches in his throat as he strokes faster, pressing his head into the door. It's quite the image in his head. Hannibal catches a groan coming from the other in the shower, only getting him more excited. So such a noise could come from a tortured man. Hannibal's hips buck in motion with his hand, they move faster as he comes closer to the edge. He hears another groan and he almost looses it. Grabbing a tissue from the night stand, Hannibal strokes himself a few more times before Cumming into the tissue. He cleans himself up and tosses the tissue then washes his hands in the pathetic excuse of a kitchen. He's had time to come down from that high. When the shower is shut off, Hannibal is seat at the table, simply waiting for Will as he goes over the images in his head of Will.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will doesn't know what to do with himself as he watches the ambulance take the girl away. He wants to go with but then Hannibal is grabbing his arm and leading him away. Will wants to protest but at the same time he doesn’t because he knows he should get cleaned up. Will let's Hannibal lead him away and take him back to the hotel room, he lets him guide him to the shower, and in all the tension he almost forgets himself. Will wants to take Hannibal with him, and outlet for the stress, but after a few moments he clears his head and slips away silently.

He slides into the shower and it starts by accident really, nothing but a brush in the wrong place, but Will wants to block his mind from all the blood and horror and so he does the one thing that keeps him from thinking all together. He doesn't know Hannibal is on the other side of the door listening to him, he doesn’t know how clear the sound of the water move is, or how obvious it makes what he is doing. Will just pulls at himself to forget everything, block it all from his mind, but what he isn't expecting is the sudden appearance of a certain doctor in his head as he pulls himself to completion.

The name dies before it has time to even formulate in Will's mind but he saw it there. Will knew it was the kindness that did it, the smiles, all of the help. He feels guilty for it, he doesn’t know he shares in the sin, and as he steps out of the shower he can help but stare down at his hands in confusion. He doesn't know why he did it, but he did, and he wants to do ti again. He wants to let his mind run a bit rampant with it, to not just stroke but more, he holds himself back of course and then he gets his clothes on. He doesn't want to think about it, what he just did, so instead he smiles at Hannibal like nothing happened in the shower. His smile is damaged though, worn, and he still trembles like a leaf. What was that comment about fine china?

Will is sure he has a few chips and crack as they go to see Abigail Hobbs, the poor girl is in a coma, and Will ends up sitting by her bedside with Hannibal well into the night, Will refuses to leave, and it's only the presence of Hannibal that keeps him sane. He falls asleep in the hospital room on the couch, curled up and a jacket that's not his, and he dreams of the stag. It walks the halls, looking in the rooms, and at the end of the hall it turns back to Will with Abigail Hobbs impaled on its antlers. Will jerks awake not much later, not even sure if he is alone with Abigail, and he silently wonders where Hannibal could have gone without his coat.

Mute Black Sheep: Unlike Will, Hannibal is sated. He's been holding back on himself for some time now, not on purpose but because he often gets caught up while harvesting organs and chasing down his kills. He's more like an animal while chasing somebody down. Usually it's very calm, careful and he has a level head but when they run, it sparks something in him and the chase is on. As Will walks out of the bathroom, dressed and still shaken up, his smile looks to shake as it tries to keep its shape. Hannibal stands and leads them both from the hotel. The drive is silent, Will still shakes in the passenger's seat. Hannibal can smell all the different emotions run through him.

As they arrive at the hospital, they both walk in, Hannibal after Will. The nurses at the front desk had been informed that they would be there to see Abigail. Nodding, a nurse leads the pair into a single room. They door had been closed to keep prying eyes away and people out. Hannibal looks to Will first, relishing his reaction to the pale girl. It is a treat to see Will's empathy working right before his eyes. A chair on either side of the girl is place by Hannibal, he taking up the chair at her right side, Will in the other at her left. He takes up her cold, weakened hand in his own. It is and it isn't a front. The girl was alive because of them both. She was killed by her father and reborn from them both. Will killed the man that destroyed her and Hannibal keeping her alive. Both of them bringing her back into this world. She was bound to them both now. Hannibal slowly ran his thumb over the back of his hand.

As it got later into the night, Hannibal remained at her side. While Will went to sleep on the couch, he remained awake. The room was cold, the ac circulating the air to keep it from getting stale. For a moment, Hannibal let's Abigail's hand go to stand and remove his jacket. Will is holding himself in his sleep, clearly cold from the air. His jacket is warm from sitting on his body for the whole day. He is giving Will his body heat to keep him warm, well what's left on his jacket. Resuming his place at the young woman's side, Hannibal takes her hand back and manages to get some sleep in the chair. It is the first night he and Will sleep in the same room. He doesn't sleep long and when he wakes, Hannibal cannot find sleep again. His hand is cramped from holding onto Abigail's. It is much warmer thanks to the transfer of his body heat to her. Standing, he shifts his body, loosening any other knots from sleeping in the straight back hair. Some coffee would do him good and it would do Will some good.

Looking to the sleeping man, Hannibal can see his brows furrow. Dreaming. He will ask him about it later. Hannibal comes back a few minutes after Will has woken up, two cups of coffee in his hands. "You're up." He sounds surprised when he really isn't. Once Will is sitting up, Hannibal hands him the cup of coffee and sits himself next to the male. "I spoke with a nurse. She said that she'll make it, these past few hours being her most dangerous." Hannibal lifts the cup to his lips, blowing at the surface of the black coffee to cool it before taking a careful drink.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is sitting up holding Hannibal's coat when he comes back and the coffee is a very pleasant surprise. The brunette opts to trade the others jacket for the coffee and he gives him a small, thankful, smile without meeting his eyes. Will is still tired, and he can feel a headache coming on, so he pulls the pill bottle from his pocket and takes one with his coffee. Dual purpose pills for him, ones Jack said would help, pain relievers and suppressants. Alana had said they were not good for him, not to take as often as he does, but she said that he needed them. Will looks at his watch, checking to see the time, and remembers he didn't use his soap the night before when Hannibal had taken him back to the motel.

It's mildly concerning but Will knows that no one would be able to tell what he really is, not unless they know the distinct difference in his scent, and so he should be good to hide for a while longer. He doesn’t remember why he didn't use the soaps, he guesses it was because of the shock, but at the same time he knows it was because he didn't want Hannibal to know. Jack had told him not to let anyone catch on to him being… what he was. Will leans back in his seat and stares at Abigail, her chest just barely rising and falling, and he worries.

She doesn't look any paler, anymore sick, but she doesn't look like she is getting better. The nurses had come and traded the blood fusion bag for a normal IV bag but still she didn't move. It's disconcerting to watch her just lay there and sleep and the part in him that he is trying to hide can hardly stand it. He wants to go over and try to wake her up, to pat her cheek and  comfort her much more than he should considering the role he has, but he knows he can't so instead he just sits and watches her. "Has she gotten any better Dr. Lecter?" Will doesn't look at the man when he addresses him, he is to intent on Abigail, and in then his attention is drawn away when he hears the door to the room open.

Alana is standing there, staring at Hannibal, and then she is over by Will and her strong perfume is masking his scent. She did it on purpose, Will can tell, because she knows him and know about what happened. Will is thankful for it, even though he knows there is no one of threat in the room, he doesn't know like Alana does.

 

Mute Black Sheep: It had been a while since the last time he was this close to Will. If he remembered correctly, the last time was when he was telling Will the story of God. He was right behind him then. Despite Hannibal's incredible sense of smell, all he smelled on Will was that same Beta smell. It was a shame really. Such a beautiful creature was wasted and yet, Hannibal couldn't help but being attracted to him, to feel that pull he had towards him. He himself, was a thoroughbred, the highest of the high. He was a well known name, status, money, a well secured job. He had everything and more to provide enough for an Omega and yet, he hadn't taken one yet. Not one, two three or four, which he was entitled to.

Hannibal had folded his jacket, setting it aside on the couch. He wouldn't need it. Hannibal glanced over to Will, the ac blowing over them. His Beta scent is pushed into Hannibal's face. It is just as he knows it, but there is something so much more to it. Hidden in his scent. His brows quirk the slightest at the male's scent. Will's words pull him from his thoughts and direct them towards Abigail. "Her body has accepted the blood. Her body will recover, but I fear for her mental stability." His eyes are trained on Abigail, even when the door opens and Will's sister comes right in to hug the Beta at his side. Hannibal stands to let her sit next to her brother. Alana is a Beta, so it's natural that Hannibal assumes that Will is as well. It isn't uncommon for paired Betas to give birth to an Omega as well.

Walking to Abigail, he touches her hand again. It is much warmer than it was before. She looks better even now. She is still so pale and fragile looking, but some color has returned to her face. A relief really to see this.  Looking to the clock on the wall, Hannibal turns to the siblings on the couch. "I must be going, please Will, keep me updated on her progress." He smiles to Will and nods to Alana and leaves, leaving his jacket still folded neatly on the couch. He still has appointments he must attend. Though after a few hours at work, Jack shows up at his office, asking to speak with Hannibal. Letting him in, he takes a seat on one of the consulting chairs. "Thank you, for yesterday. For being there with Will and helping save Abigail's life." Jack smiles at Hannibal, while he nods at Jack with a small smile. "Of course." Jack clearly isn't here to just thank him for yesterday. "I need to ask you a huge favor Dr. Lecter. I'll be needing you more on these cases, the cases Will are involved in that is. He's really responded well to having you there with him. He.... I promised Alana that I wouldn't let him get too close and he has this case.

I worry about his mental state. I know it's a lot to ask of you, but we can pay you for your services with the FBI and continue to consult Will while on the cases, well, on and off the cases." Hannibal simply smiles. This is perfect. Jack is giving him more time to mould Will in just the way he wants to. Though he can have him, Will will never belong to him. It wouldn't be his right to stake claim over the male. But as long as he can keep him close, then that's all that matters. "I gladly accept Jack." Hannibal nods, smiling as Jack smiles and laughs, shaking his hand and leaves. It would mean less time at the office, but so much more time to twist Will in the most beautiful way he can think of.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is glad to hear that Abigail is better and he knows that he can take his eyes off of her. She won't break without him looking and her heart won't stop either, it was a relief really. Will looks up when Hannibal say's that he needs to leave and he watches the other get up and walk off without his coat. It isn't like Hannibal to just leave something like that, Will thinks, but then again the other man does seem distracted. Will and Alana stay for a while longer, his sister almost rubbing her perfume onto him, and by the time they both leave Will smells just like a Beta and more like his sister. Will is sure to grab Hannibal's coat so that he can return it to him later.

Will is free for the next few days from work, but he isn't free from his mind, everyone is waiting for Abigail to wake so that she can tell them about what happened to the bodies… everyone but Will that is. Will is just waiting for her to wake up so she can smile and nod look like a ghost. She's still to young to identify with what she is, Will thinks he knows she'll be an Omega like the other girls, so he feels the need to protect her. Jack warns him, tells him he's getting to close, and Will tells him he doesn’t care. Will misses Hannibal every time, their shifts of watching Abigail seeming to end just before the other arrives, and when the next case hit's Will hasn't seen Hannibal in a week.

Will goes to Hannibal's office, the other mans coat in his hand, and he fidgets in earnest as he stands there. He ran out of his soap and between the case and trying to sleep without a nightmare Will hasn't had the time to get more. He knows he needs too, but he has the pills, and most Alphas are not strong enough to scent it on him. Will fidgets when Hannibal opens the door and looks down "A new case came up. Jack wants you with me on this one and, also… here is your coat back. I would have given it back sooner but we kept missing each other at the hospital." Will doesn’t mention how, after a bad nightmare, he had found the coat and pressed it to his nose to calm down. It was an awkward thing to mention… but he also doesn’t notice how it spread his scent all over it. I the heat of a fevered dream, when his meds had worn off.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal doesn't get a call from Jack, so he is to assume that there haven't been any recent cases. Though Jack still keeps in contact with Hannibal about Will's well being. Even a few times, he comes into his office to personally speak with him face to face. It slowly ebbs away the tension they had, well Hannibal leads Jack into thinking that. He doesn't want Jack to be irritated with him so he smiles more and relaxes more in the man's company. It lulls Jack into a false sense of security, he lets Hannibal in more on Will. It's been almost a week since he left the hospital and Will. He still goes in to see her, taking shifts with Will. Though despite that, they never see each other. Always just missing each other. Abigail has truly improved though she is still in a coma. It's hard to tell when she'll wake, all they need to do is have patience with her recovery.

After a meeting with Jack, Hannibal sits back at his desk to continue with reading Will's note book. There really isn't much left, but he still keeps reading over it, even when he has read it all already. Hannibal notices it in himself, this behavior. It's become almost obsessive. He stops reading Will's notebooks and idly drawing him in his free time at his office. It helps him, clears his head and sets himself back on the track he had laid out for himself. His resolve almost breaks at the sight of Will in his office. "Will." Hannibal steps aside to let him into his office, closing the door behind him. His secretary looks in at the pair as the door obstructs her view of her boss. "Thank you. I had a lot on my mind that day." It was partial truth. "What is this case about?" Hannibal asks Will, setting his coat on the rack to take home with him later. While Will's back is turned, he takes a small sniff of his jacket. His own scent has been replaced with Will's familiar scent.

"I am sure Jack has told you that he's asked me to be present whenever possible on the cases you work." Hannibal stands near his desk, his hand pressed firmly to the polished wood. Slowly, he pushes the paper under a stack of others. A drawing he had been working on. He wondered one night while laying in bed what Will would look like mounted on the antlers of a stag. Blood pouring profusely from each puncture wound, spilling down ivory antlers, staining them, forever making them with Will's blood. He could see them slowly take on a deep crimson color in his mind. The picture is hidden under the stack of papers and Hannibal moved forward a little more. "Why don't you tell me about this case?"

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will isn't surprised to hear that Jack has asked Hannibal to consult on Will… while Will is consulting. He also isn't surprised that Jack hasn't bother to tell him because that is how Jack is. The man seems more concerned with just getting Will in and keeping him sane rather than making sure he is comfortable. Will guesses it is alright because at least Jack is trying to keep him sane. Will looks up at Hannibal, sees him moving papers, and shifts his eyes to look at a point just past Hannibal's right temple. It facilitates the look of eye contact without the actual need of hindrance of eye contact. Will finds he doesn’t have to worry much about Hannibal trying to force the contact from him, because Hannibal knows, and so he relaxes a bit and shifts his gaze a little slower than usual.

"He didn't tell me. I wouldn't expect him too, Jack likes to have his secrets." Will sighs and sits on the lounge like chair, removing his shoulder bag and setting it next to him. "A man was found murdered with his.. intestines wrapped around his neck like a noose. That was the first murder. The man had a history of being clinically depressed and had tried to hang himself once before. His eyes were open and he was smiling when he was found. The killer… he strangled him before killing him, let him die the way he had wanted to before, but there wasn't a rope and it was almost like he was… respecting his need to die hung or something like that." Will runs a hand through his hair.

"The second death was just this morning… he had slit a woman's wrists, again clinically depressed, then pulled out one of her ribs and took the time to carve it to a point and jam it into one of the wrists. The woman was smiling as well." Will sighs lowly. "This killer is confusing, random, it's like… he knows that suicide is wrong so he kills them for them. He gives them that joy and then he uses their own bodies as the death weapon. He doesn't touch the bodies beside that, there is no anger, I just don’t get why he would do this. He obviously isn't effected by the deaths, he takes the time to do them the right way, but he also has little to no medical experience from the look of the cuts he made.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal's hand slowly slides from the polished desk as he moves to sit in one of the consulting chairs, easing himself in and looking across to Will who has made himself comfortable. As Will begins to talk about the case, Hannibal tilts his head ever so slightly at the descriptions. It isn't his handy work, if it was, there would be organs missing. "Your killer sounds religious Will." Hannibal moves his hands to his lap, faintly reminded of his self indulgence in the hotel room Will had been sleeping in and showering in. "It is always said that those who condemn themselves, take the work of God in their own hands and end their being have no place in heaven. Though in the bible, it does not come right out and say it, it is implied.

Another example is in the divine comedy where Dante Alighieri writes about his trip into hell, not condemned, but guided by the hand of Virgil. They visit each layer and circle of hell. The seventh circle is about violence and the middle ring belongs to the suicides and profligates. The suicides are transformed into gnarled trees which harpies break off branches. It causes them pain, they scream and cry in pain while they bleed from where their branch has been broken. They cannot move and their own corpses hang from their thorny branches, forever reminding them of who they used to be." Hannibal is up on his feet, slowly pacing his office as he speaks. "There is no rest of suicides, no peace and no place in the divine. Your killer does not want these people to suffer through that fate, he may want them to ascend and find their place in heaven because they have had their lives stolen from them. Though he himself, is condemned. It is possible that he feels that he is doing them a favor, the work of God." Hannibal stands near Will, hands resting comfortably at his side.

"The woman from today, you said her rib was broken off. The rib of Adam perhaps?" He is just giving his insight to what Will has told him about the case so far. "Does Jack need us on a scene?" Hannibal asks Will before taking back his seat. He doesn't know if Will has been to the scene of the crime yet. "Have you gotten into his mind yet Will? Try to see his design? His way of thinking?"

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is silent as he listens, his head hanging, and he takes a deep breath in thought. It makes sense, perfect sense, and Will wonders how he had not seen it before. It is a man releasing others of their sin, bidding them into a better life since the one they have they cannot live with. He is giving them an escape and saving them from sin. Will loses himself in thought for a moment, as Hannibal finishes, and it takes him a few ticking minutes to come back to his head. "Jack will need me at the crime scene, they haven't moved the body yet, but he wanted me to get you and fill you in. I haven't gotten in the killers mind yes but I think you just opened the door." Will stands, grabbing his bag, and waits for Hannibal before leaving.

They drive together to the scene, the house is cut off and not even the neighbors stand on the street anymore. It's a small place, there are toys in the front yard, A man stands with a son and a daughter off to the side and Will has to grit his teeth. He is careful as he steps into the house, careful as he goes to find Jack, and he is careful as he stands in front of the body and waits for everyone to leave. He doesn't notice Hannibal staying, the man is such an integral part that it doesn’t matter anymore, and he closes his eyes.

The pendulum swings once, then twice, then a third time and he is standing outside the house late at night. There is one light on, the living room light, and he can see her sitting in the kitchen crying. She looks like a broken angel sitting there, she is so unhappy, and he knows he can give her relief. He can save her from this horrible life and the damn nation of hell at the same time. He doesn’t break into the house, just knocks on the door, and when she answers he says something that he doesn't say and her eyes light up in a glimmer of hope, a smile on her face. The smile stays as he enters the home and he lays her down in the kitchen. "I slit her wrists, she's very calm, she knows I want to help. It hurts a little but I pet her hair to make it okay-" Will notice the blood in the woman's hair. "She doesn't feel anything as she drifts off. I know they will find her, they need to know, I did this because she let me. She was happy, I save her, removed the sin from her… so I cut out her rib. The one god born her from. It doesn’t take long to sharpen." Will stares down at his handy work on his head, not noticing the tremors in his own body.

"I need them to see I am helping. They need to know I am getting rid of the pain, not hurting, I am trying to save… this is my design." Will slowly comes back to himself, still standing in the same spot and having been completely silent or so he thinks. When Jack come in Will is rubbing at his eyes. "He stroked her hair, while she was dying. He wasn't wearing gloves, he doesn't need to, he thinks we won't look for him if we know he's "saving" them. He thinks he's doing god's work." Will looks to Hannibal "You were write about the rib. He removed it as a way to remove the sin it's self. Cut it from her body so she could go to heaven. Were looking for a man well versed in the bible, but not a pastor, a person with a history of being clinically depressed and most likely having tried to commit suicide several times. He'll be alone most likely, no living family left to help him, he'll be someone who knows these people and their battle with depression but not someone who councils them." Will looks down at his watch "He'll most likely be in confession right now."

Mute Black Sheep: A smile graces his face as something in Will clicks and he looks more alive than he did when he first walked into his office. Hannibal simply follows Will out after making a quick stop at his desk grabbing the paper he had stuffed under the others. Crumpling it, he tosses it into the waste basket. Hannibal drives them both to the crime scene, the areas tapped off. Will is out quick and Hannibal follows in calmly, glancing to the man and the two children who might be the woman's family. The sight does not faze him, their tear stained cheeks and the children gripping to the man's shirt does nothing for him. His walls are high and no matter how much the young girl looks like Mischa, he does not let it reach him. His face is a mask and his eyes are blind to the young girl's face.

Stepping into the house, he is greeted with the smell of stale blood and the faintest hint of the chemicals that were used to look for prints. Will is already lost to the world when he's behind him. Hannibal means to intervene in case Will cannot return from his head. It is a few minutes that Will's in there and as he comes back, Hannibal is stepping out from behind him to circle to body, looking at her smiling face and the cut in her side where the rib had been reached and broken. "It's sloppy." Hannibal says to anybody listening. The cut is jagged and there had to be a lot of shaking on the man's behalf. If he believes that he is doing God's job then he would be proud, not scared. "He might have Parkinson's disease. His hands had to be shaking violently to be making these cuts. If it's progressed enough, then it would explain the depression. He would also have dementia, sensory, sleep and emotional problems."

Hannibal rises to his feet, running his hands down the front of his coat, smoothing out the lapels. Hannibal nods once to Will when he mentions the ribs. "Possibly fifty or older." He chimes in with Will. Jack nods at them both. He turns to Jimmy Price and points to the body. "I want prints off her hair, even partials if you can, whatever you can get to narrow down the suspects." Jack looks around the room until he finds Beverly Katz. "I want you to call back to the office and tell them to run a search on the surrounding churches and youth groups. Christian and Catholic churches. We are dealing with a man that knows the bible. You two." Jack turns back to Will and Hannibal. "Once we get a list of the surrounding churches, I want you to go to each of them and ask around for a man fitting Hannibal's description. Fifties, with possible Parkinson's. If the church is in then look for him in there. Like you said Will, confessions. We need to know if he's confessed to any of the crimes yet." Jack turns to leave, patting Will's shoulder as he passes.


	3. Breaking Apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will is falling apart and he's terrified he'll take Abigail and Hannibal with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is where a big twist comes in you guys! Ignore the random bits were we talk about Alpha/Omega Dynamics, we got the RPs a bit confused at the time. Anyway I hope you all like.

# Breaking Apart

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will nods at Hannibal's reply, Parkinson's would be a good reason to the jagged cuts. A man alone with such a disease, too old to really find anyone to be with easily, Will can understand why he would feel so lonely. He can see why he would want to release these people from pain, he knows how they hurt, it would be better than leaving them to suffer on earth. He believes he's doing god's work and that by keeping them from hell it will somehow give him some sort of redemption when his disease over comes him. "Look for catholic churches only. The Christian ones in this area don't deal with confessions." Will is staring at the woman on the ground, he can feel himself slipping slightly, and while he stares he imagines the shape of wings being burned into the ground and the rolling of an apple from her hand.

He gave her redemption that he could not attain, and suddenly Will isn't so sure he is thinking about the killer or himself. Will quickly looks away from the body, sucking in a breath, and pulls out his pill bottle. He takes two this time, his head is splitting, and then he heads out the door to wait for the all clear to search different churches. When given their lead Will is quick in the car, his hands are jittery, he shifts a lot and when they stop he is quick out. He has a feeling, a deep feeling, that whatever confession this man had made for this day would be his last. Will steps into the silent church carefully, further ahead than Hannibal, and when he is clear of the door he hears a thud and then a click of a locking door.

Will turns, his hand on his gun, and he sees the man himself. His hands shake almost violently, even as he just grips the door, and Will wonders how little time this man has left. Will can see it in his eyes, it isn't much, and he wonders why he trapped him. "I thought you would understand." He says with a sigh, one hand gripping his own gun. "You saw, you saw William. I know you did, I was saving those people, you know what it's like don't you? I know you do… I can see it William." Will blinks carefully, exhales like he has been hit. "I can see it in your eyes, you've tried it before… but the gun just wasn't loaded. I understand that pain… I can make it go away." Will can't breathe, he takes a few steps back.

"No… the gun was loaded… I just decided not to pull the trigger." The man tutts, he can taste the lie in the air like a snake. "I can make it go away William. All that sin.. You saw it. I gave them redemption. I did gods work, I can do gods work with you." Will quickly shakes his head and the man raises the gun shakily. "Why do you deny it? I don't understand!  So many deny the pain, do not accept my relief I choose to give… I let you die how you wish. But they all tried to run." Will takes a step back and stumbles, glances down, and his heart stops. There are three bodies laying on the floor, all shot in the head, and when Will looks back he can see that this man is currently lost to the disease.

"I saved them. I let them go like freeing birds… I'll do the same for you." Will can't draw his gun fast enough, the bullet thankfully missing by a mile and hitting him in the shoulder. Will still goes down though, he doesn't know what else to do. He goes down and he stays down, bleeding and in pain, and when he looks down one of the pews he sees a young teen hiding under one of the pews, eyes big and terrified. Will carefully motions for the boy to be silent as the mad man gets closer and closer. Will doesn’t move as the steps echo, he can hear pounding on the large door, and as the man steps over Will he can think of nothing but to smile.

Not because he's happy but because that teen is staring at him, terrified, and he wants him to know it's okay. That's when it hit's Will, the thing he felt wasn't there… he was never alone. Those prints in the woman's hair wouldn’t be from this man but from the teen who was hiding. The smiles weren't from joy but placating smiles to a scared child. This man is doing this for both god and in a way to scare this one boy away from it. Will lets his smile waver a bit, just a bit, and then he trips the older man, the gun going off again and bullet hitting near Will's ear. Will can see the door burst open and the man whirls around, gun in hand, and is shot in the head before he can even aim. Will pushes himself up and then looks back in the pew. He leans over, carefully reaches out a hand, and grabs the boy's fingers. "See? It's alright. This time it was alright." Will smiles and in the next moment he has a boy of barely fourteen latched onto him and shaking.

Will looks up at Hannibal when he gets close. "He was doing god's work… scaring his grandson out of committing suicide." Will rubbed the boy's back, even though his other shoulder burned, and smiled a little. This kid was going to be ******** up for the rest of his life… and his own blood had done it in the guise of "god's work." Will knew how that felt in a way… it was how Abigail Hobbs would feel when she woke, how he felt when he has escaped his past lover, that feeling of being ruined and knowing that you are.

Mute Black Sheep: They only have to wait minutes before a list of Catholic churches are printed on a paper and handed off to Hannibal. They check a few before the one they are on now. Hannibal looks over the list in the car once he has turned it off. Will is already out and heading towards the door. Looking up, he admires Will's graceless walk. It fits him oddly enough. Getting out of the car, Hannibal sets the list in his seat once he's out. Looking back, he finds that Will is quite far ahead of him. He's tempted to call out to him to bring him back. It isn't a far walk to catch up to him. He turns and heads for Will's back, focusing on it as they move. Will is inside and Hannibal can no longer see him. The door that was once propped open is slammed shut and Hannibal can hear a faint clicking sound of a deadbolt being locked.

Hannibal jogs to the door and tries to open it, the handle won't budge. He's locked out with only the sounds of Will's and an older man's voice coming from the inside. He can hear it all. The man's claim of understanding and Will's confession to his attempt at suicide. Hannibal pounds on the door then freezes at the sound of a gunshot. Hannibal can feel heat boil under his skin as he leaves for his car to grab his gun. It's left in the glove box and untouched. Grabbing it, he's rushing back to the door in time to hear another gun shot. He fears that he is too late and Will is already dead. Hannibal lifts his foot and kicks at the door, the lock breaking through the wood. The door swings open and before the man has even time to raise his gun, Hannibal has his up and aims quickly. He is steady and his aim is spot on. He shoots once, the bullet ripping through the man's head. He hits the floor with the sickening thud.

Hannibal doesn't bother to check to make sure the man is dead, he knows he is. There is blood on Will's clothes and he knows that he will need medical attention. There is a teen in his arms, scared but alive. Hannibal is at his side, gun placed on the floor next to him. "Will, you're injured." He knows Will's empathy is in overdrive, caring for only the boy in his arms. While Will cannot even begin to care for himself, Hannibal will take over. He places his palm to the front of Will's shoulder and cups his hand so his fingers are pressed to the exit wound. He applies even pressure to the wound to slow the bleeding. There is a small wound on Will's ear where the second bullet must have grazed him. Moving in closer, Hannibal pulls his phone from his pocket, keeping his hand on Will's shoulder to slow the bleeding. He quickly calls Jack to inform him of their location and the situation. Of Will's injuries, the amount of dead in the church and the boy.

The paramedics are quick and Jack is right on their heels. Looking over the trio, the boy in Will's arms and Hannibal close to Will, his hand still squeezing tight over the wound. He doesn't say anything, being quickly ushered from the church so they can get Will to the hospital. Hannibal quickly lets Jack know that he's going with him. Will is walked into the ambulance, Hannibal close behind him.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Hannibal is right to assume that Will doesn't  pay attention to his own injury, his empathy for the boy bleeding out much fast that his own blood, but when Hannibal speaks Will can feel the pain in his shoulder and in his ear. He's luck it's a through and through, that the bullet isn't still lodged in his shoulder, but at the same time he isn't lucky because he can feel it went right through the bone. When Jack comes with the paramedics Will is shaking, most likely from shock and not his empathy, and the boy has loosened his grip a little. He thanks Will a million times over as he is put into on ambulance to be checked over at the hospital and then Will, who was forced to lay down and not just shrug off his injury, is being loaded into another.

He's covered in blood, both his own and not, pale and shaking. He feels sick to his stomach as the ambulance starts to move and his heart beat speeds up a bit. "I can't feel my fingers." He doesn't know why he say's it at first, he really doesn't, but then he realizes that he really can't feel two of his fingers on his right hand. His middle and his ring are completely numb and when he tries to move them it  doesn’t work. His heart beat picks up again, his breathing coming faster, he doesn’t know what it is about this that scares him, that makes him panic, but somewhere inside he knows it just the shock he is already suffering from.

His body is shaking still but his heart is beating faster and faster thanks to the panic. Will feels his head start slipping and he starts telling himself who he is, where he is, what time it is. He does it over and over again, ignoring the paramedic and just focusing on not slipping like he could feel himself doing. By the time they reach the hospital Will isn't sure what's up or down but thankfully it's because of the pain meds and not the empathy. His head rolls from one side to the other, feeling much heavier than it should, and he lifts his arm without thinking. His middle finger and ring finger don't straighten out, they stay curled as they are, and the paramedic knows what that means.

They take Will into the hospital and effectively away from Hannibal, the man can't follow the empath into surgery to repair the nerve damage the best they could, but thankfully it's a quick procedure. The damage isn't bad, a tiny nick that will heal it's self, the nerves are only bruised and with time will come back to strength. They tell Hannibal this even though they don't know what he is to Will, they assume a close friend or more, and they let him back to see the now waking Will. The brunette is barely there, his eyes opening, then closing for a few minutes, then opening again. It takes half an hour of the overly slow blinking before Will is fully awake and he actually notices someone is there and by this time Alana and Jack have joined.

"I got shot." He says in a daze, Alana gives a watery laugh at his other side and Jack sighs in relief. "Yeah you did.. but you and Dr. Lecter saved that boy." Will sighs slightly "Good… did they put my fingers back on?" Will thinks that isn't right, he just wants to know if they fixed whatever screwed up his hand but he can't tell at the moment. Alana looks confused and so does Jack, Will just looks rather high thanks to the meds.

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal had moved in closer to Will when his shaking began, knowing that it was from shock. He moved in closer to keep him warm. Inside the ambulance, the paramedics hooked Will up to some fluids and padded down the wound on his shoulder with gauze to slow the bleeding. Hannibal knows he could help in some way but remains out of it so the paramedics could do their job. The paramedics do all they can for Will, just waiting until they make it to the hospital. Hannibal sets his hand over Will's, the warmth from his own body seeping through. "You'll be okay Will." He knows he will. Hannibal guesses some minor nerve damage but can't be too sure.

The moment Hannibal sees that Will is slipping in and out of the world around them and his head, Hannibal moves in closer, repeating the same thing Will is so he has some other confirmation other than his own voice. Hannibal knows he can't go in with Will, no matter how much he wants to. He's led to the waiting room where he'll have to sit and wait until Will is out of surgery. He doesn't have to wait too long, which means that there is good news. Any longer and then he'd know something was seriously damaged. The doctor finds him sitting in the waiting room, Hannibal rising to his feet. The surgery went well and he is informed of the damage that has been done. He's led back to see Will. He doesn't say much as he sits and just waits. "That was far too close Will." Hannibal says to the slowly waking man.

Hannibal has been there since Will go tout of surgery though Jack and Alana file in, not surprised to see Hannibal there already. They only have to wait about five minutes until Will is fully awake. His first words out of his mouth making the woman on the other side laugh. "You never lost your fingers." Hannibal smiles. "There was only some bruising to your nerves, the bruising and shock as the cause of the feeling that you've lost feeling in them." Hannibal informs the other three in the room, though it was addressed to Will. "You really shouldn't rush in like that Will." Hannibal's voice is softer as he speaks. Jack nods then smiles. "It's the first thing you're taught." He laughs, glad that his fine china is intact.

"They want to keep you for tonight and tomorrow they'll let you go. They said they won't put you in a shoulder cast, just a brace and a splint to keep your arm from moving." Hannibal informs Will, he won't be able to do any chasing until his shoulder is healed so looks like it's just looking into the killer's mind and nothing more until he's better. Must be a hindrance, but Hannibal knows that if he asks if it was worth it, Will would answer in the affirmative. Jacks says he has to return to the office, there is a young teen to question and bodies that have to be sent to the morgue and identified. He has a lot of paper work that he'll have to fill out and a lot left to do. That just leaves one very loopy Will, Hannibal and Alana in the room with him.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will nods at Hannibal, only half understand what the other was saying, and then he sighs. He's half there as Jack say's he has to leave, Will being very distracted by Alana's hair moving on its own when it really wasn't. "What did they give me?" Will roles his head to one side so that he can look at Hannibal then back to Alana. Will looks back to Hannibal "Abigail is here… I should go see how she is…" Will moves like he is going to get up and Alana gently holds him down. "No will you are going to lay in bed and get better. You can see Abigail tomorrow, they say there are promising signs of her waking up very soon, you should get some sleep." Will sighs slightly, his head feeling too heavy.

"mmm… My name is William Graham-" He starts it slowly, staring off to one corner as he drifts. His head is so heavy, like.. he's wearing a helmet or something and he can hear the pounding of hoofs on the ground. Will can see Jacob Hobbs sitting on the couch smiling "See?" He says lowly and William continues in what he was saying "My name is Will Graham" He doesn’t know what time it is though and he's remember where he is. "Where… am I?" Alana blinks slowly and looks to Hannibal. She is really concerned because this was what she had been worrying about when they told her what kind of meds they had Will on.

His mind already played enough tricks on him, it didn't need the help of drugs to make it any worse.

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal watches Will very carefully as he looks around the room at nothing, like he's searching for something. Will is mumbling his name and drifting off. "He has bad reactions to pain medication?" Hannibal asks Alana, his eyes trained on Will as he lays sleeping. It is about thirty minutes later when Will wakes again and asks where he is. Hannibal's brows furrow as he stares at Will, his eyes drifting as he and Alana share a worried look. Hannibal got to his feet and leaned over Will. Setting a hand on his forehead, he uses his thumb to pull back Will's eye lid. Moving out of the way of the light, he sees that Will's pupil dilation is relatively slow. "Is he allergic to any medications?" Hannibal asks, easily slipping back into the feeling of being a doctor for the hospital.

He knows he can't really do anything with supplies and that ship has long since sailed. He no longer works in the hospital and it no longer a surgeon. "I'm going to get his doctor." Hannibal pushes some of the dark curls from Will's forehead before leaving to hunt the man down. At first, the doctor says that he's busy and will check up with Will in a little bit. It only takes a few threats of suing the hospital for giving pain drugs to a mentally unstable man. The doctor pales at the threat and quickly leaves for Will's room. The doctors know that everybody reacts differently to each pain medication, especially ones so strong. The doctor can clearly see that Will isn't in his right mindset and immediately changes the pain medication, increasing his fluids to keep him hydrated. "he's shouldn't react negatively to this one. It's not as strong so he will be in a little bit of pain." The doctor glances nervously at Hannibal before leaving them again.

It will take a while for it to come into effect and even more time for the other pain medication to circulate out of his body. Hannibal leaves again to get himself and Alana coffee. He would have gotten some for Will if it wasn't for him being stuck in the hospital bed this time. Hannibal is gone for a few minutes, coming back with two large coffees, handing one to Alana as he takes his seat again.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: When Hannibal asks about Will having allergic reactions to certain meds she shakes her head "He has a hard time with hallucinogenic ones. I try to keep him off of those but some doctors don't pay attention." Alana sighs and then Watches as Will falls back to sleep only to wake up again and ask where he was. That wasn't good and the weak way Will bats at Hannibal is a sign that his is not doing well with the meds. Alana can't thank Hannibal enough when he goes and gets the doctor so that he can change out the meds "He's used to that doctor." Alana smiles a little and then gently strokes Will's hair as he makes a few small mumbles and drifts back to sleep. She hates seeing Will like this, so lost and hurt, it makes her heart clench uncomfortably.

Alana doesn’t notice Hannibal leave and when he come back with the coffee she is surprised "Oh thank you… sorry I didn't notice you had left." She looks back to Will, holding his hand lightly, and sighs. "It's hard to see him like this. I know he's alright but he's been in the hospital so many times… to many times." Alana stroked Will's hair lightly again, his head tilting just slightly into the touch, and she smiled. Alana stayed for a while longer but she ended up having to leave before Will woke up. "I have to go Hannibal but thank you… for saving him and helping him. I don't know what I would have done if your hadn't been there." Alana smiles and then leaves.

It takes another hour before Will is coming around again, the meds finally wearing off enough that he could come back to himself, and when he does wake up he isn't surprised to see Hannibal there. Will is silent for a few moments before he sighs "Thank you Hannibal." Will looks at the other and smiles, really glad that the man had been there to help him. "Do you know if that kids okay?" Will shifts so he can sit up just a bit, raising the bed, he still feels sick to his stomach thanks to the meds but he isn't as dizzy. "Geez what were they thinking? My records say not to give me anything that may cause mental lapses and such." Will chuckles a little and winces as it shifts his shoulder.

He would be feeling that for a long while, thankfully they could give him some other strong meds safely without having to worry about him losing his mind. At least he wasn't working at the school anymore so he didn't have to worry about having children climb all over him. His dogs though…. "I hope Alana stopped by the house and fed the dogs."

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal waves off Alana's apology, understanding that she's focused and worried about her younger brother, he'd never blame her for that. Hannibal quietly nods, watching as she touches his dark curls and as Will leans into the touch. He can't help but to wonder if Will will ever lean into his touch like that. He's half tempted to reach out and touch him after Alana leaves. He's asleep, he'd never know. He has touched Will's face to bring him back, his shoulder, in harmless places. "Of course." He'd kill again for Will, any time, anybody. Hannibal finds himself staring at Will for almost an hour, his coffee long gone and body stiff from sitting in the chair for so long. He is about to get up to stretch his body when Will wakes up. Hannibal only moves closer in his chair.

He nods once then leans back in the chair. "Jack informed me of what's been going on. They got his statement and asked him a few more questions. Medically, he is fine. Shaken up and a little dehydrated and exhausted. Mentally, I cannot say the same. I fear a simple good night's rest will not rid him of what he's already seen and been through." Hannibal cocks his head to the side and smiles softly. "Will, in the time that you have been awake, you have worried more about others than yourself. The bullet went right through the bone in your shoulder and you're worried if your dogs have been fed." He lets out a small laugh. Jack comes in a few minutes later, looking flustered and worn out. "Will. I'm glad to see that you're awake." Jack nods at Hannibal who returns it.

"How long will he have to stay here?" Jack asks Hannibal who stands and fixes himself. "Only tonight. Though they suggested that he take a week off to start recovering. I agree with them for his physical and mental health Jack." Hannibal can see that this puts a hindrance on the reason why Jack is really here for. "Of course." He agrees without any complaints. Hannibal has already made up his mind to stay the night with Will. He worries for him, such shock from a wound could trigger a possible mental breakdown for Will and the possibility of him slipping into the mind of the man who had died before he had a chance to kill Will.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will feels relieved to know that the boy is okay physically but he knows that he will have quite a few problems mentally to deal with. Will feels his cheeks heat up at Hannibal's smile and laugh at him caring more for others than himself. He smiles a little "Remember Dr. Lecter-" Will points at himself "Empath" and then he chuckles again. Jack comes in a few minutes later, just after Will has been brought something they consider food at the hospital and he is poking with his fork. Will is already looking rather dismayed when Jack comes in and the looks seems to intensify when the man enter the room but is quickly wiped of his face as he decides to forgo the strange "chicken" and just eat his jello. At knowing how long he has to stay Will doesn’t look to happy, his face tight and drawn, but he doesn't say anything.

"So what's the problem Jack?" Will smiles tightly at the man, know that there is something else wrong He doesn’t want to be on another case for a while, not after this one, and he doesn’t want to risk hurting himself even more if he goes to a crime scene. Will knows that he needs this week to collect himself but by god it seemed he wasn't going to get even that. Will didn't know that when he agreed to do this job he would be relatively selling his soul apparently. Jack seemed to never want to give him a moments of rest. Will sets the jello down and then shifts in the bed.

"You two mind if I get up? Laying in these beds never puts me in the best of moods." Will gives a tight smile and a moment later he is standing heading for the hall to go for a bit of a walk. He hates hospitals, of any kind. Always worried he's going to end up stuck in one for a very long time. Will is glad he was provided with a robe to wear as well, he doesn't quite want to flash anyone, but then again he doubts that Dr. Lecter and Jack know he devoid of his underwear at the moment. Will steps into the hall, getting a look from the nurse, before he just waves and starts heading toward a familiar direction. He might as well visit Abigail while Jack is irritating him.

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal looks over to Jack, his antsy shifting and quick eyes irritates Hannibal. He knows, like Will, that Jack is here to ask something of Will. To get something from him and it really gets to Hannibal. Will is still in the hospital from a wound and it hasn't even been a day since he got shot and yet, here Jack is to push Will for something. Along with the irritation, there is a possessive feeling towards Will, HE wants to be the one to break the empath, not Jack. Both Jack and Hannibal look to the male as he is getting up and clearly determined to move around even for a little while. Both men move aside so Will can scuttle out of his room and down the hall. "Are you trying to break him Jack?" Hannibal finally turns to him.

Hannibal can already see the worn out expression he's wearing. Clearly, Hannibal isn't the only one who's asked him this today. "You know that's not what I'm doing. He is the ONLY one that can get into these people's heads and find them!" Jack rubs his face with both hands, sighing into them. "The first day I met Will, I spoke with him in my office. On my way home, I found him walking the road. He lost four hours that day because of something he heard on the news. Four hours Jack. This will only get worse the more you push him into that state. He will not be able to come back if you push him over the edge. Is that what you're trying to accomplish?" Hannibal has turned to face Jack who looked torn between worry and amazement.

"Four hours? Really?" Jack settles for amazement. "Yes, he was stuck in the head of a woman that had been regularly using drugs. She killed her boyfriend and for four hours, Will was in her head, reliving her crime. The one that got Will fired was because of that man that had dug out his son's eyes with a spoon. I pulled him back before he had to see himself digging the boy's eyes out." Hannibal took a few steps closer to Jack. "You have no idea what you're doing to him." Hannibal doesn't stay to hear anything that Jack has to say. He's walking out of the room to find Will. He finds his feet leading him down a familiar ward. Without even realizing it, he's ended up at Abigail's room and there is Will right inside. "She looks better doesn't she?" Hannibal asks Will as he steps in and stands next to the other male. Her color has returned, her neck still wrapped up and tubes still connecting her to the fluids supply and hear monitor. "She will wake." Hannibal reaches out to touch her auburn hair.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will doesn't know about Hannibal and Jacks conversation, if he had been there he most likely would have been scolded by Jack for not telling him. Will takes longer than Hannibal to make it down to the ward and when he does he smiles as he heads for Abigail's room. She looks so much better, like he imagined she would when she wasn't scared or having her throat slit. Will stands by her bed, his wounded arm held in a sling, and he watches her sleep. She looks peaceful but Will knows that won't last forever, she was going to have nightmares once she came back and Will felt guilty for that. Will knew he shouldn’t but he just thought that maybe, just maybe, he could have gotten there sooner. Maybe if he had tried harder to get into Jacob Hobbs head, maybe is he had pushed himself a little deeper, he would have known and he could have saved Abigail the nightmares.

Will looks up when Hannibal comes in and then he looks back down to Abigail. "She does look a lot better. I bet she'll wake up soon." Will shifts where he is standing and sit in the chair next to Abigail's bed and gently grabs her hand, watching her face, and he knows the guilt shows as he looks at her. "I wonder if she'll hate me when she wakes up? I shot her father, couldn't save her mother, and if I had just tried harder…. I could have saved some of those girls. I didn't try hard enough to get into Jacob Hobbs head." Will sighs his hand gentle as he runs it over her cheek.

"She's going to have nightmares, lots of them, and I have a feeling I will be a part of them." Will feels he deserves it, he shot her father ten times, but he doesn’t want it. Will feels like it would hurt to have her hate him, he doesn't know why. Will leans back after a moment, and watches her, before standing again and checking the flowers he had put beside her bed a few days ago. They were nice flowers, lilies and such, they lasted a long while when cut and they still looked fresh. Will gently brushes her hair out of her face, pulls the blanket up a little higher, and then heads out of the room.

Normally he isn't comfortable enough in front of people to fuss in such a way, to act the way he just did was strange for most men who were not already fathers, but Will doesn't care. No one could make a connection to his actions… he was a teacher, had been for a long while, but he did have another reason to take such good care of Abigail. He could still remember that crying wrinkled face and the too blue eyes as he gave her to a smiling Jacob Hobbs. The man had loved Abigail, Will new that, he had taken his daughter but given Will the most grateful look. He had made sure Will knew that his child was a gift to him and his wife, something they cherished, which was most likely why Jacob had tried so hard not to hurt her until the very last moment.

Will headed back down the hall, his heart giving a small ping, Abigail would know she was adopted but… could Will really tell her? And how would he explain it to Alana? She hadn't known, she had been gone towards those last few months and Will had been so tiny, so what would people say when she said she wanted to be with her biological "mother". If she even wanted that though…

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal watches Will as he stared at Abigail his face holding guilt and blame. "Do not blame yourself Will. You saved her life, you ended the killer and she lives, a bright, young woman. You gave Abigail her future, we gave her life." Hannibal sets his hand on Will's shoulder, it is gentle and warm. "He was difficult Will, you said it yourself. He was deranged and for a reason unknown to us, felt the need that he had to kill her to keep her with him forever. You gave her hope." Hannibal's hand moves from Will's shoulder to rest on the back of his head, the dark curls moving against his fingers and wrapping around them. "We all have nightmares that we will never be able to shake Will. It is a part of life." It feels domestic, standing next to Will, his hand in his hair as he sits and they both watch Abigail. The feeling dies the moment Will stands and fusses over her and the feeling is back.

Hannibal remains by Abigail's side when Will leaves. He touches her face softly and watches as her brows move slightly from the contact. Yes, he and Will gave her life, new life. She bled out that old one onto the kitchen floor while he and Will saved her and would give her a new one. Hannibal wanted to give Will some time alone, to himself. He had been around people all day and if he was still agitated from everything then it would be best to give him his time and space. Hannibal sat down, occupying the place that Will was just sitting in. The sound of her breathing and the steady beep from the heart monitor lulled Hannibal into sleep. It was only a small nap, a nurse walking in to check up on her and spotted him, uttering a small apology. Hannibal leaves to let her do her work and returns to Will's room. It was going onto six in the evening when a nurse brings in Will's pathetic excuse of a dinner. Hannibal inwardly cringes at the look of the grayish turkey and runny mashed potatoes.

"I'll make it up to you. Tomorrow, I'll cook you something for dinner." Hannibal wished that he could have made Will something to eat so he wouldn't have to deal with the slop the hospital served. When night came around and when Will as asleep, Hannibal moved to the couch in the room to get some sleep himself.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: When Hannibal mentions that him and Will gave her life Will almost stops and makes a comment about the phrase because the man doesn’t know how true it is. Will did give her life, it took him nine months to give her life, and he gave her a good life after that. Will doesn't know where it went wrong with Jacob Hobbs but Will knows that he gave her the best life he could have, better than the one she would have ended up with. Will goes back to his room and sits alone for a long while, trying not to cry as he remembers that moment he saw his daughter for the first time in eighteen years. He had been so young when he had her, only fifteen, it had messed a few things up but Will had been happy to carry her and by god he would have kept her if he could.

A doctor comes in while Hannibal is gone and Will talks to them about a certain few things before getting his stomach and other things checked. The nurse who is there tells him it will be fine and then thirty minutes later Hannibal is coming back into the room and Will is being served the slop that they call food. Will pokes at the food, his nose scrunched up in almost a cute way, before he took a bite of his male. A the mention of Hannibal's food Will smiles before trying not to gag. "I think I would take almost anything over this." Will can't eat much of his food before it's too much and he has to just go with the Jello.

Will falls asleep easily that night with Hannibal in the room, his mind not plagued by those thoughts, but he only makes it a few hours before the nightmare hit him. It different this time, the stag is there but it's standing beside Will, and Will is screaming as Jacob Hobbs slits Abigail's throat. The stag roars in anger, splendid beautiful anger, and Will watches as the stag surges forward and spears the man on his antlers. It's a glorious sight and in the next moment Abigail is standing and smiling but there is blood pouring from her mouth.

Will is un-aware as his body moves, disconnecting himself from the many machines, and then he walks over to Hannibal and straddles the man's lap, his hands going to press firmly over Hannibal's mouth and only his mouth before one presses to his throat like will had tried to do when Abigail bleed in the kitchen. The pain in his shoulder doesn't even reach Will as he talks. "Sh… Sh… stop bleeding… sh sh please Abby it's… okay… I shouldn't have…. Sh."

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal is sleeping with his own plaguing nightmares, the same thing repeating in his head time and time again. The tiny teeth floating to the surface of the thick stew. The absence of the warmth at his side and the empty, hollow feeling he is left with as the food is force fed to him. Hands clench and loosen at the nightmares, his brows furrow and he twists in his sleep. It shifts to just hours ago when they're heading up to the steps of the house, the little girl standing beside the man is bloodied, her face is smudge with dirty and she has a thick cough. The boy at the man's other side's face is bloody, around his mouth where he stares blanking at him and Will. The man in between the two is familiar, he's hunted this man down for years to end him slowly and painfully. He's smiling at him, teeth dark and rotten. _"Siehst du?*"_ The man asks with a curling smile. Turning from the sight of himself as a young boy, he comes face to face with Will who's been mounted on stag antlers, blood pouring from everywhere. _"Do you see?"_ Will asks him through the blood in his mouth.

Hannibal is woken to the feeling of a hand on his throat and his mouth. He is about the grab whomever is on his lap by the throat when he sees Will sitting in his lap, his hands pressed to his body and eyes glazed over. He isn't apply enough pressure to choke him but there is weight behind his hands. Hannibal doesn't stop him just yet, Will's voice catching his ears. He isn't making any sense. In his head he is clearly talking to somebody, Abigail perhaps? Hannibal grabs onto Will's wrists and slowly removes them from his face and throat. Sitting up, Hannibal carefully wraps his arms around Will, minding his injured shoulder. "Will, Will, wake up." He doesn't want to move him anymore than he has already moved himself. He can see through the pale bandages and brace that he is bleeding again from the movement. It must have broken the sutures in his shoulder. Hannibal carefully carries Will back to the hospital bed. He is light, far too light for a man of his age and build. He must feed him more, he thinks before pressing the button to call upon a nurse.

As she enters the room, Hannibal informs her of Will's sleep walking the bleeding. Checking up on the sutures, she finds that it is just from the movement in his arm. They don't have to be replaced but she lets Hannibal know that if Will continues to move his arm then they'll have to put his arm and half his torso in a cast to keep it still. Hannibal promises to make sure that it doesn't happen again so he simply sits next to Will's bed and remains awake. He finds it disturbing that Hobbs' last words has even reached him so deep to be embedded into the faces from his past. Hannibal rubs at his forehead, a strong headache coming on. Hannibal remains awake, getting up to get coffee and washing his face and cleaning up the best he can. If all is well, then Will would be able to leave the hospital today, though after last night, Hannibal is worried for him when he sleeps.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will was too lost to even realize when Hannibal stopped him and he just sort of slumped against the other man when he pushed his hands back. He would wake up aching the next morning, that was for sure, and he would also, most likely, wake up feeling more than a little upset. As predicted Will woke up sore in the morning, just after Hannibal had returned, but he was also feeling horrible. He had such a horrible dream about Abigail, and Hannibal, and Garret Jacob Hobbs. Will didn't want to think too much about it and so when Hannibal offered him something to drink Will gladly took it. Hannibal looked tired as well and when the other sat down beside his bed again Will pat his hand. He didn't know about what had happened last night but seeing Dr. Lecter so worn was something new.

"You didn't have to stay all night Dr. Lecter." Will smiled a little while he sipped at him drink. He hoped he would be out of the hospital soon, there was no real reason to keep him any longer, but he also knew that it would probably take until about midday before they gave him something to take at home and sent him on his way. Will wanted to go see Abigail while he was here, to see if maybe she would wake up, but he had a feeling that it was kind of a pointless home at this point in time. Of course he found himself getting out of bed anyway and starting to head down the hall with Hannibal in tow.

"I had a nightmare about Abigail…." He says it softly, almost like he is afraid that by saying it then the nightmare will come true. "I don't like having nightmares about her but I get them a lot…. I feel responsible for what happened to her in… more ways than just having shot her father." Will shuffles along, not knowing really what else to say. "I guess I will tell you another time why that is…. I also dreamed about you…. I didn't sleep walk last night did I? My shoulder suggests I did."

 Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal looked to where Will was patting his hand then up into an equally tired face. "It was no trouble." He assured him before carefully removing his hand. Hannibal stood and waited for Will to get to his feet as well before they headed down the hall towards Abigail's room. They walked side by side, Hannibal's back straight, shoulders back and held high compared to Will's slouching and avoiding eyes. Looking to Will from the corner of his eyes, Hannibal turned his head slowly to the male next to him. "In fact, you did. I was sleeping on the couch and you came to me in your sleep. Straddled my hips and placed one hand over my mouth, the other over my throat. If I remember correctly, which I do, you told me to stop bleeding and called me Abby. In between, you shushed me then at last, you began with 'I shouldn't have' and that was it."

Hannibal stopped walking, turning towards Will now to face him. "What was it that you shouldn't have? What was your dream about Will?" He was curious as to what it was that Will was trying to tell him while he slept. He had woken him from his nightmare only to be pleading with him to stop bleeding. Clearly, Will wasn't talk to him, but who he thought was Abigail in his dreams. "I know you feel responsible for her injury Will, but you really shouldn't. You saved her from her father, from certain death. We all know that he would have killed her in the end no matter what. Those other girls would never be enough for him. He could always need more, he would always need to see his daughter die before his eyes." Hannibal knows that Will has gotten too close in this one. He killed Hobbs, he and his daughter plague his dreams.

They continue down the hall until they are in Abigail's room. A nurse is there checking up on her, making sure that her pillows are fluffed and everything is in its place. She smiles warmly at the two men, knowing who they are. She was there when Abigail was brought in with the wound. She knows they are there because they care for this lone girl, that she is connected to them both now. The nurse leaves without a word, the two chairs in the room untouched. Hannibal lets Will get the chair on the outside so he doesn't trip while taking the one between the other chair and the stand that holds up the bag of fluids. The steady of the beep from the heart monitor and the machine that makes sure she remains breathing. "She looks better every day." Hannibal speaks first to give some encouragement to Will.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is stunned when Hannibal tells him what he did and he seems to slouch impossible smaller. Well he wasn't expecting that, not at all, but he's glad he didn't actually try to choke the other man. "I am sorry about that Dr. Lecter, I really am." Will doesn't answer the questions, just keeps his head down and continues to walk once Hannibal starts up again. He doesn't know how to answer these kind of things to this man, he has to lie and he knows it, so he carefully contracts a lie filled with half truths and phrases it in a way that he knows will placate the man. He'll be able to tell a small amount of deception, Hannibal always can, but he won't know for sure what part of what Will is say is lies.

He'll only know what truth Will wants him too and that is that Abigail is his daughter and Will is her father… one of her fathers. Will silently shuffles into the room and he can tell she is already better than the day before. Will fusses about again after the nurse leave, brushing Abigail's hair out of her face and making sure she isn't to warm. He feels a heat on her skin that isn't from a fever so he moves the blankets down just a bit. He'll pull them back once she is cooler. Will sits down in the chair beside Abigail again and gently grabs her hand.

She's always so soft, like he remembered her, and he wonders how she could feel just the same after so many years. "It really is my fault Dr. Lecter. I could have-… Her birth name isn't Hobbs Dr. Lecter… It's Graham. I was a young idiot when it happened and her other parent just… dropped off the grid. I couldn't care for her and it was only up to me what was going to be done with her." Will leaned back in his seat. "Fifteen with a kid? I had nothing going for me, my dad wanted her out of the house, Alana told me what I had to do and when she was a month old I gave her to who I thought would be good parents." Will runs a finger over her knuckle.

"Garrett Jacob Hobbs was a good man when I gave him my daughter Dr. Lecter… It didn't make it hurt any less and it only makes me feel more guilty." Will feels his throat tighten. "She screamed so loud when they took her… She cried and cried and I had to just walk away from it. She was a good thing I almost lost twice and now the things I dream? I dream of smothering her when she's still just big enough to fit along the length of my arm. Who does that? Who dreams those things of their own child and doesn't go mad from it?" Will can't fight the tears back at the idea. He can see her smiling up at him, a movement that was more just muscles working than an actual thing, but she had been so precious in that moment and Will had never wanted to let her go. "I had thought she would be safer with the Hobbs family Dr. Lecter… the one thing I thought I did right turned out to be so very wrong."

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal turned his body to face Will as he began to speak. It.... it was a shock. Hannibal knew it was there on his face, the shock of it all. Fifteen was a young age to have a kid and it really made sense why he was so attached to her, why he felt like all of this was his fault. "They are only dreams Will. In a way, it is natural. You want to protect her no matter what. Knowing what happens to her now, at this age, your subconscious is showing you that smothering her at a very young age would have protected her from this fate." It isn't unheard of, parents killing their children so they wouldn't have to suffer so much in the future.

Hannibal slowly shook his head a few times before he carefully set his hand on top of Will's. All of this physical contact was planned. It was carefully planned out. A touch here and there to show that he cared, that he was concerned for him, that Hannibal was still his anchor that kept Will on this earth, that kept him from floating away into the abyss. "Or it turned out perfectly." There is a certain darkness in Hannibal for a split second before it's gone. "We have all been through trials and tribulations that brought here to this exact point. What you have gone through in your past, what I have gone through. It all happened for a reason. So we can be where he are right now.

You gave Abigail up years ago in hope for a better life, yet here you are reunited with her. You killed off the man that was threatening her life. You saved her, killed the imposter to take place of her real father. The weakest fall off and the strongest thrive. You both are strong, which is why you thrive now. Pain is a part of life, it reminds you that you are alive." Hannibal slowly removed his hand from over Will's hand, letting it all sink in. "You may have felt like you had done something wrong, when in reality, you did just as you were supposed to. There's a reason Hobbs was the killer. It brought her back to you."

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will shakes his head as Hannibal speaks, wanting to protest, and then the other is rest his hand on his, over Abigail's, and he's saying just what Will needs to hear. It's normal, not right but normal, and it makes Will feel better about what he has done. He feels better as Hannibal goes on and he can only nod as the other man tells him that everything happens for a reason. It's woefully Cliché but it's true and Will takes comfort in that fact. He can't help but smile and so he carefully looks up at the other man "That you Hannibal." It's the first time he has used the other mans first name but at this point Will thinks it's appropriate. Hannibal isn't just his therapist right now, he's his friend, and Will is sure that if the other man wasn't there than he would have broken down.

Will looks back to Abigail, not focusing on the others reaction, and he gently touches her hair. "I guess this is a second chance." He seems so happy about it, a dark part of him just seeming to melt away, and Will knows that he'll still dream of what Jacob Hobbs did but he will not ever seem himself smother his little girl again. Will has just grabbed Abigail's hand again when her monitors start going off and suddenly her eyes are open. She's pulling at the Iv's and Will has to grab her hand as she panics with the tube down her throat. "Don't pull that out. It'll hurt if you do that." Will watches her eyes go slightly wide and then she blinks in affirmation as the nurses come running in. Will is moved out of the way, holding onto his little iv bag holder, and he's watching Abigail carefully.

He hadn't even realized how cold it had gotten, but Abigail had still felt warm, Will just barely makes it into the hall before he's collapsing. He can feel all his muscles start twitching just before he slips off into his head. His body is on fire thanks to an infection that cropped up and burned him up in less than an hour. His whole body shakes and the only thankful thing is that he has nothing in his bladder to lose. Will falls hard in his head, and in real life, he lands and blood and guts and horror. He can see Abigail as a baby screaming and alone but then she's quite as she is lifted into the stags antlers.

Will feels his heart thud and he stumbles to his feet, wading through the mess, and reaches the stag. It's the first he has approached the stag and not been approached. Will takes the babe in his arms and suddenly it's Abigail bleeding from the throat. Suddenly Abigail is gone and it's just Will and the stag and Will is bare before the beast as he is stabbed through the back and lifted from the ground. Will doesn't even know of the panic he causes seizing on the floor.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal can feel the heat begin in his toes from hearing his own name coming from Will. It isn't affection, love or admiration. It's a desire to possess him to hear his name being called out like that in both pleasure and pain. It's exciting and like a drug. He wants more of it, he wants to hear it more, to feel it vibrate in him each time Will screams it. A small shiver rips through his body at the thought alone. "You're welcome Will." Hannibal gives a small nod, his calm exterior still together and shielded. This is also a very large stepping stone in the flooded lake. He can see now that Will sees him as a friend a protector even. He is one step closer. To celebrate, Hannibal decides to go hunting tonight to find some very fine cuts of meat. Save it up for the dinner he's promised Will.

"Yes, it is." Hannibal nods then looks to Abigail, finally pulling his eyes from Will. Now that he knows the truth, he can find so much of Will in this girl. The pale skin, the bright, blue eyes that lay underneath her lids. Her hair is auburn and straight as an arrow, it must be from her mother's side. Abigail waking catches Hannibal off guard. He stands to his feet and quickly sets his hands firmly on her shoulders, keeping her down gently as Will speaks to her. Once she's calmed and the nurses have come in, Hannibal steps back from her to let them take care of the girl.

Hannibal carefully removes himself from the bundle of nurses, quickly following Will out of the room. He's very pale and Hannibal can see he's shaking. Hannibal is there just as Will goes down, pulling him into his chest and slowly lowering him. Hannibal rolls Will onto his side and carefully holds him close, keeping Will's mouth open in case he vomits, he won't choke on it and quickly removes his glasses. "Will, Will it's okay. Stay with me Will." Hannibal is keeping Will close and anyone that tries to get near him. The nurses are there for Will when he comes back, but they understand how dangerous it can be. Hannibal's brows furrow for a moment when Will's good arm collides with his stomach.

This isn't the first time Hannibal has been with somebody during a seizure. He saw a lot of them actually, while he was a surgeon and now during his current profession. Hannibal rubbed Will's back carefully, pulling back his upper lid to find Will's eye shifting back and forth rapidly. He can tell that it isn't a horrible seizure but it certainly isn't mild. Hannibal carefully pulls Will's head into his lap, his arms on either side of Will now, his body acting as a cage. Once Will's body stops convulsing, Hannibal quickly begins to rub his back hard to get him breathing properly. Before Will can get up once he's come to, Hannibal holds Will close until he's completely himself again.

"It's okay now Will. You're fine. You're safe." He can feel how hot his body is, from both the infection and from the seizure. "Will, Will I need you to count to ten for me, can you do that?" Hannibal is keeping his voice low as he talks into Will's ear. He's now rubbing Will's chest to get him breathing regularly again.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will comes back to himself very slowly, to slowly, his body still twitching and in a warm embrace. Will's breathing won't calm down and it's coming in the strange hiccupping gasp as when he had shot Hobbs. Will's eyes are still rolling in his eyes, fluttering open and then closed and then open again, as he tries to come back to himself. The nurses are flitting about, not wanting to move will yet but already injecting his IV with some high grade antibiotics and something to being down the fever he was already sporting. Will catches glimpses of Hannibal as he tries to come back. He sees him fist from his side, then another odd angle, he feels the hand rubbing against his back, and then he's looking up at Hannibal and the other man is trying to calm his breathing.

Will is still shaking, but now it's more shivering , and he starts fading back into reality. Hannibal is saying something to him and Will tries to say his name but it comes out a jumbled slur of consonants and vowels instead. Will fades out again and comes back a moment later "Hann…ible? Wuh?" Will's head rolls from side to side because he's rather confused as to where he is. Hannibal is telling him to do something, something Will can't quite understand, he hears the word 'ten' and he guesses the other is asking him to count. Will starts at three… then goes back to one and two a few times before fading back out. The nurses are bustling around and at hearing his failed attempt at counting one of them suggests that Hannibal check to see if he hit his head when he fell. Sure enough there is a bruise blossoming on his temple.

The closest nurse doesn't give any warning before she grabs Will's bad shoulder and jarrs him awake. "O-Ow… stah…p" Will bats weakly at whoever did that and then groans. "Dr. Lecter I suggest you keep him awake as best you can. We need to get him scanned." The nurse see's the gurney coming and Will chooses that moment to latch onto Hannibal's sleeve. "Wha-… Hannibal… Wha' Happen?" His voice is much smaller than normal, he seems truly lost, and his breathing starts speeding up again. "He got her… he got her and now sees gone… there's blood… everywhere." Will groans.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal's arm tightens around Will a little more when his head starts moving around. He needs to keep him where he is so he doesn't injure himself anymore. Hannibal nods his head slowly when Will starts then actually is able to tell that he's missed two numbers and goes back to correct himself. That right there is a good sign that he is becoming more aware but the fact that he started at three is a little alarming. Carefully turning Will's head to the side, he looks at the darkening skin where Will had hit his head on the floor. He could have sworn that he caught Will just in time. Though it might have also happened when he was going into convulsions.

"Don't touch him!" He snaps at her and throws her hand off of him. Hannibal carefully pulls Will closer to himself to shield him from the idiotic nurses. As another approaches him, he pulls his shoulder down to keep her from reaching for him. He acknowledges her with a short nod. "It's okay Will, you're going to be okay." His voice is even and calm like always. He keeps his cool and radiates it from himself. Hannibal looks back down to Will when he starts speaking. "It's okay Will. You had a seizure. You hit your head, but you'll be fine." He begins rubbing Will's chest again when eh shivers. "No Will, Abigail is safe in her bed. She's awake. There is no blood. He isn't here anymore." Hannibal promises.

When the gurney comes to a stop by them, Hannibal easily lifts Will up and carefully sets him down on it. The nurses are often too rough and it would be more of a fight to get Will from his arms. Hannibal follows at Will's side as they move him into another room to get scanned to make sure he hasn't seriously injured himself. Hannibal promises Will that he will be gone for a few moments. Hannibal knows the doctor that is performing the scans. The scans come up empty. "A stress and infection induced seizure. Once the fever breaks and we make sure the infection is gone, he will be released." Dr. Sutcliffe speaks to Hannibal as they both look over the scans. He's right, there is no anomalies there. The nurses help Will sit up off the gurney after the scan. They bring him some water. "Thank you Don." Hannibal shakes the man's hand before leaving the room and walking up to Will. He's placed back inside the room, though now, confined to bed rest. "It must have been the irritation of moving your arm last night when you were sleep walking." Hannibal says from Will's side.

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will didn't know what was going on but Hannibal was telling him that everything was alright and his head was starting to clear up. As the minutes ticked by things slowly got clearer and clearer until Will was able to understand partially what was going on. He had never had a seizure before so the thought that he had just suffered a pretty serious one was strange. Will didn't want to let go of Hannibal when they went in for the scans but he released the other males sleeve anyway. He didn't want to cling because that would be strange, very strange, and Will was sure no one would quite understand why he was so connected to his therapist. Will stayed calm and still for the most part, his head still not quite feeling right, and soon after he was being pulled out of the damn scanner and taken back t his room.

Will crossed his good arm over his chest, looking rather put out, and then he sighed heavily as Hannibal came into the room. "Well it was bound to happen. I already look like I am having a seizure when I lose time… unless I am up and walking about." Will chuckles and it's bitter but it isn't aimed at Hannibal. He feels stupidly broken after this, like whatever calm he had was utterly shattered, and Will just doesn’t know what to do. He feels almost hopeless that he will get better, because this wasn't supposed to happen, and god help him if he seizes during a case. Will can feel the sudden weight pressing down on his chest and he presses his head back into the pillows.

"I think the school was right.. I really am not fit to teach children." Will chuckled a bit bitterly and he's suddenly more glad than ever before that he gave Abigail up. He would have ruined her and he knows it, she would not be who she is and will thinks… he's sure he needs to stay away from. If not because Garrett Jacob Hobbs is still haunting him than because Will breaks all the people he knows. His sister, Jack, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he broke Hannibal as well. Will plucks at the blanket with and irritated frown and looks up at the ceiling. "Think I need to move again." Will say's it mostly to himself, wanting to run, and for all hell he just wants to do it. He wants to pack up his dogs and take off because maybe if he runs away than he can leave all this trouble behind. Fight or flight and Will is so tired of the fight.

Mute Black Sheep: Hannibal glances over to Will, this is the first time he's ever acted so childish before, well at least what he's seen. Hannibal simply arches a brow in Will's direction. Hannibal lets Will feel pity for himself, letting him act like a child a little longer until Will goes on about moving. "Running from your problems Will? Not always the best solution of course. Though if you wish to do so then you'll only find that you will have a harder time settling in a new life. Nobody you know and all alone. There will be nobody to make sure that you're okay. There is your sister of course, but you can't be selfish enough to uproot her life as well." Hannibal kept his tone even as he spoke and nonchalant.

"You had a seizure because of the stress and infection. At least it's not a life threatening tumor." Hannibal smoothed his hand over his waist coat as he spoke, keeping this as impersonal as possible. As if they were simply talking about the weather. "If you do run Will, then is seems that I have overestimated you." Hannibal stands and leave to grab some coffee. He is tired from the lack of sleep and how much it really took out of him to keep Will from hurting himself during his seizure. He also leaves because self pity leaves such a horrid taste on his tongue.

He grabs a cup of coffee, standing outside for a bit to feel the cold air against his face. He can smell an oncoming storm. There is electricity in the air and a certain chill that reaches his bones. The first rain fall. It is only mid October. It is starting early this year. He remains outside for a while more, enjoying the sight of the colors leaves shaking and falling from the bare branches of the pale trees. Turning, Hannibal heads inside, the cup in his hands warming them from the chill. Hannibal drops by Abigail's room to see how she's doing. He smiles at her, seeing that they had removed the tube from her throat and are still checking her over and fussing over her. "I am very happy to see you awake." He speaks to her, weaving in between the nurses to get closer to her. He can see now since she's awake how much resemblance she has to Will. Those eyes are Will's and her mouth is like Will's though her nose doesn't fit in under Will.

Her neck is wrapped up still in bandages, she has regained all of the color in her face, but she still looks so scared, which is only natural.

Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is shocked by what Hannibal says and he blinks at the man and just watches him go. He feels thoroughly scolded for feeling sorry for himself, he guesses he really doesn't have any right, but it was the first time in so long. Will swallows around a lump in his throat and closes his eyes because he's almost glad he scared Hannibal away and it makes his stomach clench in pain. "Great job Will" He says it bitterly, angry that he had shown such an ugly side of himself, and he tries not to let the emotions bubble out of his throat. He knows it's stupid to cry, he doesn’t have any real right to, and so he bites his lip hard and just holds it in.

Suddenly the hospital room is suffocating and Will can do nothing to leave. He wants to crawl up the walls and out through the windows if it means he can be free but instead he just lays in the bed and keeps himself silent and still. His shoulder aches, his limbs are weak, and his head is aching. He knows his body is suffering but he also knows his mind is suffering even more. Will sighs heavily, because he still thinks he isn't fit to teach anymore, but he decides not to voice such things anymore. He feels like a bitter child and it only bites at him even more.

Abigail is sitting up in her bed, the nurses flitting around her, and she looks shocked and scared. The sight of Hannibal doesn't scare her but when she does see him she looks around. She gives a small smile but she's still looking for something, someone, else. "You were here earlier with that other man. The one who had my eyes." Abigail doesn't acknowledge if Hannibal is surprised and even though she is scared she still wants to see that other man. He looked so much like her and the face it was… somehow so familiar. Not just the face but the voice and Abigail needed a bit of familiar right now. She guessed the face could be familiar because the guy had shot her "dad" but it's familiar in another way and Abigail just wants to see it again to be sure.

"My dad told me once that I had my birth fathers eyes when I was sad. That man had my eyes when I am sad… even though he was smiling he looked sad." Her voice is scratchy and strange to her own ears and the nurses are fussing about. Abigail looks far away, like she's talking to Hannibal but she's not, and the resemblance to Will is so striking it's almost jarring for one of the nurses who has taken care of them both.

Will is thinking to himself when Alana comes back and he doesn't look at her. "You should be at work" He says it softly and Alana just smiles "I took some time off.. they called me-" Me shakes his head and leans back. "You should be at YOUR work. Far away from here… back home." Will looks up at her and Alana's brows scrunch together. "Will Wha-" The male just shakes his head. "You should be back home at the practice you had joined, the one you loved so much, instead working this job you hate to be near me… You shouldn’t have followed me out here because I should have just stayed." Alana blinks then sits next to Will and when she tries to grab his hand he pulls it away and shakes his head.

"Will stop. You know why I came out with you your acting-" Will laughs bitterly "Like a child right? Can't I? Just once can't I act like a child? I didn't even get that chance when I was a child." Alana sits back and watches Will carefully. "Don't do that Alana… Don't psychoanalyze me. I mean it… I should have just stayed with that b*****d." Alana Shakes her head in disbelief. "Yes. It was stupid and selfish of me to leave Alana. He attacked you because I left then we both-…" Will took a deep breath. "Will he stabbed you in the stomach while you were pregnant." Will looked to the window. "Yeah I know Alana. I still should have stayed because I had no right bringing you into that. Just like I had no right to hide from him what… what was going on." Will crossed an arm over his stomach. "You should be at work." Will repeats it lowly.

He remembers how often he would hear the word selfish, how often he would be told that he only thought of himself, and by god Will wanted to do that now. He felt petulant and like a child and he wanted to be a child right now. Will waited until He heard Alana's heels click down the hall and then he gave a low chuckle. He certainly was a child now, completely infantile, and he was so ******** SCARED. Will sucked in a breath because he knew how horrible this all looked on him, how ugly it made him, and he wanted to use it. He wanted to wear it as a bitter mask for just long enough that he could lick his wounds. He needed to rebuild his walls a bit, rebuild what Dr. Lecter had chipped away, and no matter how bad each damned brick felt he had to put it back in place. When the nurse came back in Will told her not to let anyone in, that he wanted to be alone, and he felt slightly spiteful for it.

Will wanted her to call him a child, to wound him a bit more, because it was better everyone see this instead of just how much this had all broken, oh god so broken, him.

 Mute Black Sheep: "Yes, I was." Hannibal nods once, watching her bright eyes shifting around the blaring white room. Hannibal moves slightly to block the harsh light from her face. The lights in the room and the reflections for the white walls being enough. He keeps his face calm as he always does though he is very interested in how she can pinpoint how she and Will share the same eyes. Then again, it really isn't hard. Hannibal has looked into enough eyes to tell them apart and he has to say, he's never seen such blue eyes like Alana's, Will's and Abigail's. The Grahams had a different blue than anybody. They stood out, framed by long, dark eye lashes and dark hair. Pale skin and such wide, eyes. Always searching, always daring to look through anybody they landed on. Just the idea sent a shiver down Hannibal's spine. It was... exhilarating to think that there were three people, two siblings and one a daughter of one of said siblings could look right through him, rip the human mask from his face to reveal the monster underneath, his true self.

Blood red eyes, large, gaping mouth to chew it victims up and swallows them. Strength behind each limb and a twisted hole where the skin has been clawed and chewed away where black blood drips from where its heart would be. Hannibal moves a little closer to Abigail's bed as she speaks about how Garret Jacob Hobbs had told her that she had her real father's eyes. "That is Will Graham. He's the one that saved you. He's in another room recovering from an infection." He decides to leave the seizure out of what else he's recovering from. Hannibal smiles and touches her hand. "I am sorry, how rude of me. I am Dr. Hannibal Lecter. I was there with Will when he saved you." He watched her carefully, keeping a smile that fell short of his eyes on his face. He was hoping that it would help her trust him more that she wouldn't be looking for something in his eyes, in his face. Hannibal couldn't help but to wonder if she shared her father's same gift. He guessed not since she could make eye contact.

After a few minutes of speaking with her, a nurse politely asks Hannibal to leave so they can check up on her some more. Hannibal stand and touched the top of her head, giving her a reassuring smile before leaving the room. His feet carry him back to Will's room, only to find a nurse stationed outside of his room. "I'm sorry sir, but Mr. Graham is not accepting an visitors right now." She smiles at him when he removes his hand from the door knob. "Oh, that is a marvelous ring you have there. A wedding band?" He asks as he looks at the old dingy thing on her finger. The nurse isn't old, she may be in her mid to late thirties. "Yes." She smiles though it is weak. "Is your husband not enough?" Hannibal asks quietly. The nurse's face falls in an instant. "E-excuse me?" She tries to sound mad, but she's far too shocked to even sound anywhere close to it. "You have marks on your neck from somebody. Not your husband I'm guessing. You would keep your band polished and clean, proud to wear it. You wear it like an ugly scar. The top buttons of your uniform are unbuttoned, proudly displaying your cleavage and when you smiled while thinking about your husband, it never reaches your eyes."

The nurse's face falls and she begins to back away from Hannibal, unable to even come to terms with what he's saying. Since she doesn't speak, Hannibal goes on. "You wear far too much makeup to be happily married. You wish so desperately to be single again. You try to cover the marks on your neck with makeup, but you've forgotten that your uniform it white and you're wearing a very frilly, black bra and the marks stand out on his shoulders and stomach through the white." He holds eye contact with her while she continues to stare at him in disbelief. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She snaps before quickly leaving, forgetting her post and why she was there to begin with. Hannibal wipes the smirk he's wearing off before entering the room. He doesn't care if Will doesn't want to see anybody. There are much more important things that have to be addressed other than his self pity.

"Will." Hannibal nods to him as he quietly closes the door behind him. He looked over in time to see the fear in Will's eyes, before he could duck back behind his wall, Hannibal saw it. It was such a good look on him, that fear. Beautiful really. "You're scared." Hannibal spoke. It wasn't a question, just an observation. "Both of you. Such scared, blue eyes. Abigail says you're very familiar to her." Hannibal takes up the empty seat at Will's bedside. Hannibal stares at Will for a longer more, seeing everything shift as he tries to hide what he has already seen. "Will, you are letting yourself slip again." Hannibal gets to his feet, remaining at Will's side. "Let me be your anchor. Let me help keep you here." Hannibal says as he leans in closer to Will. "You don't have to be alone in this and you're not. Let me help you Will." Hannibal carefully sets his hand on top of Will's hand. "Just let me help you."

 Killer_Kiwi_XD: Will is comfortably laying back in his bed, trying to control what he was feeling, when he heard the voices outside his door. He doesn't like the sound of that and he realizes who one of them is. He can't quite make out the words and then a moment later Hannibal is stepping in and Will is trying to bring himself back in and build his walls back up quicker. Hannibal is tarring him apart with every step closer he takes and the fear is biting at him so firmly that Will knows it's flowing faster than he can build. Will doesn't look at Hannibal and he feels his heart start picking up speed. Will feels Hannibal's words wash over them and they burn him so deep that Will can feel it in his bones.

Will closes his eyes tightly and then he jerks his hand away, as if he was burned, "Stop… Just stop." Will grips at his chest and squeezes his eyes tightly shut in the hopes of just making Hannibal shut up and stop because it's burning him alive to hear the other speak. "Just let me fall apart. Just let me take care of it all on my own. You have no reason to be so invested in me so let me ruin myself. I don't need to stay sane, I don't even know if I am. Let me have my damn PITTY Hannibal. For once I just want to have my goddamn PITTY and let it be my own instead of having it be everyone else's!" Will hates saying Hannibal's name but he can't bring himself to call him Dr. Lecter right now and he doesn’t know why.

"Just let me be SELFISH. Let me be a child and let me pull myself back together dammnit! Let me be UGLY." Will presses a hand over his eyes because he doesn’t want Hannibal to see how much he hates himself for all of this. He hates it so damn much but he just needs to be ugly for a moment, to pity himself and shove the bitter taste in his mouth, because it's so suffocating to feel it from everyone else and this time he wants to choke himself before anyone get the chance. Will wants to be a ruin, a sad thing left unattended, if only because he hates himself right now more than any of the killers he has ever faced. He wants to be UGLY and BROKEN and by god he wants to repel everything because he's so pathetic and bitter and he WANTS to be because it's how everyone sees him and damn it all if he doesn’t want to live up to expectations.

He's falling apart, completely and utterly, and he knows it and even those he tries to build his walls he knows the water will slosh over and soon it's going to crack everything because Will just doesn’t care anymore and he wants to scream. He is so pathetically broken, a jumbled mess, and he wants the whole damn world to drown with him right now. It's all so confusing and it all hurts so damn much and Will feels like he deserves it for all the things he has done wrong. He doesn’t even acknowledge when he starts crying, or when he grabs Hannibal's hand, because his walls are bursting with everything and he wants to just let them go. Not today though, not now, not with Hannibal there and not with this careful thread of something between them and so shaken by the waves Will is creating.

Will just lets it happen though because now it isn't pity, it's just pain, and Will just hurts so very much. It takes a while for Will to calm down but he doesn’t let go of Hannibal's hand and in the end he feels so very much better. He's silent for a long while  before he finally decides he can't stay silent. "I am sorry about… all that. I don't usually break down like that in front of people." Behind closed doors? Yes, all the time, but Will has a feeling Hannibal knows. The pity wasn't real, and it's still so damn bitter on his tongue, but it had almost kept him stable. A defense mechanism by the book but this time Hannibal ripped it down like so many other wall that Will tried to build.


End file.
